


How to break up with succubus

by Pathogenus



Category: Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou | Daily Lives of High School Boys, Xanth - Piers Anthony
Genre: Comedy, F/M, Fantasy, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe, Slice of Life, Students, University, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 10:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 60,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19003903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pathogenus/pseuds/Pathogenus
Summary: An urban fantasy, reverse isekai if you will. A portal connecting our world to a world filled with magical creatures straight p from a fantasy books has been opened. After long negotaitions world began to cooperate. Human world kindly greeted visitors from another world who wished to start a new life. Prestigious university of economy is one of the schools that agreed to take part in a project inviting exchange students from another world. What used to be a normal university for years, now becomes a place filled with centaurs, dwarves, elves, gorgons and human mages. An everyday life full of comedy, drama and mysteries begins, as all races try to get along. Roughly 46 chapter long adventure.





	1. Chapter 1

Martin struggled to carry his heavy bag upstairs to the second floor of the dormitory. It had only four floors and they didn’t have any elevators. He imagined he looked pathetic trying to pull up a huge bag with his slender arms. He regretted not accepting parents’ help. “Are you sure you can do it on your own?” asked his father. “Don’t worry dad, once I get out of train all I need to do is get into a bus and then dormitory is just few steps away.” He almost reached the second floor. He looked around to check if someone sees him. He hoped no one saw him walking upstairs, that would be a bad first impression on new friends and classmates. At least none of the girls would see him as they had a separate dorm next to this one. Carrying the bag on the even floor despite still being difficult, was way easier than trying to get it through the staircase. Martin arrived two days before the start of the semester on the prestigious University of Economy. He got assigned to a room for three people, like every dorm room was. Martin was excited to meet his roommates almost as much as he was hyped up to meet creatures of other races that recently arrived from another world.  
Martin searched for the key to the assigned room. It turned out the door was already opened. Inside Martin saw one boy lying on the bed by the window holding a book above his face with one hand. At first Martin thought, the roommate ignored him as he didn’t take his eyes out of the book, but after a while he shut the book and put it on the desk as he stood up. He probably just didn’t want to stop reading mid sentence. As the boy stood up, Martin suddenly felt short seeing a guy about one head taller right in front of him. He had athletic body, he could look like thirty years old if it wasn’t for his young beautiful face.  
“Dorian, nice to meet you” boy introduced himself as he shook Martin’s hand. Martin’s hand was so much smaller, that he thought Dorian might crush it.  
“Martin. Looks like we are going to be roommates for the next few years.”  
“You carried this bag all by yourself?” asked Dorian while looking through Martin’s shoulder.  
“Oh, that? Yeah, that’s not a problem. It just looks heavy but it isn’t.”  
Martin continued pulling the bag inside the room, trying to get it to the one of the two free beds. At the entrance to the room there was a kitchen with a sink. Rest was made of one room with three beds with two shelves above them and three desks and a square recess with wardrobes. Martin tried to pull the bag as fast and gracefully as possible, he heard Dorian trying not to laugh as he watched him.  
“Okay, I’m not that strong. I’m really neglecting training my body” admitted Martin as he compared himself to his new roommate who could probably carry this huge bag without much problem.  
“For me having, strong body is as important as having powerful brain” explained Dorian.  
Martin started unpacking, taking out all of his items and clothes from the bag and trying to arrange them the best way possible. “So, what are you going to study?”  
“Finance and accounting.”  
“That’s just like me. Great, we will go through the same adventure and struggles together.”  
“How can you call studying an adventure?”  
“It’s not just a regular university now” replied Martin. “So of course it’s going to be some kind of an adventure. Actually everything can be called an adventure if you just think of it the right way.”  
This guy clearly isn’t fit to study in such place, thought Dorian. He will probably drop after first year.  
Suddenly door to the room opened and another boy walked into the room. Finally someone more normal looking, thought Martin as a boy in glasses walked in. Martin thought his body looks weak when he saw Dorian, but seeing a slender boy in the entrance ensured him it’s not that bad with him yet. Boy in glasses was dressing so formally as if he was already a businessman.  
“All three of us already moved in, great” said Martin with voice full of excitement.  
“Yes, no mysteries of who will join next” replied new boy with a calm, almost bored tone. “My name is Ray.”  
Martin and Dorian introduced themselves before Martin and Ray got back to unpacking themselves.  
“Since all three of us are already here” started Martin. “We should go out somewhere and get to know each other more.”  
“We will be spending a lot of time together” replied Ray. “We will get to know each other sooner or later.”  
“I like Martin’s idea” said Dorian.  
“This isn’t how I planned this day” sighted Ray.  
“Life never goes as we plan it” replied Martin. “It’s accidents that push us further. Beside the statue of free will there’s always a grand wheel of fate to mess things around.”  
Martin always spoke full of energy, as if he was fascinated by everything. It made Dorian and Ray wonder what makes him act so lively, questioning if he’s even sane.

They headed to a store near the campus to buy one beer each and looked for a place to sit in. A campus area consisted of four dormitories, two on each side of the entrance gate divided into male and female ones. Further down there were an university lecture building with another gate to the campus on that side. There was also a still closed canteen in the corner of the campus area and recreation building near the dormitories, for holding out events or for students to spend their free time in. Dormitories surrounded a huge open field. On the side there were lots of trees, colorful as it was almost October, as well as benches, some in the shadow of the trees and others exposed to the sun for anyone’s preference for summer days. In the middle there was a huge four level fountain that was half as tall as the dormitory. Martin, Dorian and Ray took a seat on the dark marble fountain. Martin peaked inside, water was crystal clear, as if it was coming from fresh start of the river in the mountains. There were lots of coins lying at the bottom, at first glance a funny image considering it belonging to a prestigious university where barely anyone got relaying just on luck. On second thought a frightening view of students who lost hope as the exams were nearing to the point of giving in to the superstitions. At the side of the fountain there was a plate with Aristotle quote “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”  
It was two days before the start of the semester, area was full of people moving in or already spending their free time in a new home. Boys looked how people and creatures carry their luggages and walk into the campus area with eyes full of either excitement or fear, sometimes both. It felt almost as if they were in a fantasy world, with orcs, dwarves, elves and many others walking around. They differed from what they used to imagine them to look like from seeing their depiction in fiction but they were still easy to recognize. A humanoid creatures coming with variety of skin colors going through whole rainbow pallet and grass like hair, mostly in blonde or grey orange color. They had human ears but they were clearly elves. Girls wearing hats or towels that looked like they were part of their fashion rather that sign they just left shower. Without exception they were wearing glasses. Boys assumed they were gorgons who use headwear to hide the snakes that make for their hair and glasses are to prevent them from turning everyone they look at from turning into a stone. Dwarves were probably the ones that looked the closest to what they used to know from the fiction, a short round people. They were dressing as if they were rock stars from the 80’s, either they failed to imitate this world’s fashion sense or that was simply what their culture got used to wearing. Among others who looked like regular people were probably more of the visitors from the other dimension. Some perfectly blended in using their human looks. Other were still wearing their clothes that for this world looked too extraordinary making them stand out. These clothes were varying from minimalistic medieval clothes with a modern touch making them look lighter and more comfortable to a flashing full of decorations clothes that looked like taken straight from baroque. The Great Revelation happened almost five years ago. Portal between two worlds remained opened for this entire time, but it was only now that they could experience an interaction with visitors from other dimension. People knew only as much as they could gather from the little information that media were allowed to leak out. But they didn’t know what kind of human-like beings they should expect.  
“This is going to be an interesting experience” said Ray as he looked at the centaur with a t-shirt specifically designed for their species walking nearby. All three of them looked at the creature without trying to be rude and stare too much. But the sight was too unusual and interesting to simply ignore it.  
“I can’t wait to meet all the sexy elf girls” said Martin.  
“Did you come here just to make out with girls from other races?” asked Ray not even trying to hide his contempt..  
“Of course not” Martin replied immediately. “But you cannot just study all the time. You need to do something in your spare time.”  
“Yes. After studying, attending science clubs and taking care of student council matters, letting the mind rest seems necessary. But relationships are too troublesome to start one at university.”  
Does he even know how to have fun, wondered Martin. “What about you Dorian?”  
“No. Yes. I… It depends if I meet someone interesting. All I had so far was a bunch of boring girls going after me as if I was a celebrity or something.”  
Martin and Ray looked at him with their eyes wide opened. Dorian said it so quietly as if he was shy or ashamed of it.  
“For some reason I was popular in high school” said Dorian. He didn’t understand that his explanation brought more questions than answers.  
“Anyway” Martin forced to change topic. “Are you studying finance and accounting too Ray?”  
“Yes. I hope it turns out as I expected, I already have plans of my own business that maybe I’ll manage to start in like ten years-”  
“Okay, nevermind” shouted Martin trying to stop Ray from taking possibly a long monologue. “We will have plenty of time to talk about studies anyway. Let’s try something else. Where do you come from?”  
“I’m from a small town near Krakow” said Ray. Everyone looked at him shocked. “I guess out of three of us I’m the furthest away from here.”  
“It’s one of only three universities in the country where they agreed to let the exchange students from another world so it shouldn’t be surprising.” said Martin. “But I come from a town only less than an hour away from here. I can go home for weekends anytime I want.”  
It was Dorian’s turn but he stayed silent as everyone looked at him.  
“I actually lived in this city since I was born.”  
“What!?” Martin waved his arms. “What a waste of money. You could just stay at your house.” Then he added under his nose. “Idiot is probably coming from a rich family.”  
“That’s not it. My parents had a reason to send me here.”  
“Hey, guys” a deep voice called them from the distance. They looked behind to see a group consisting of elves and orcs dressed in tracksuits or PE uniforms. “Are you up for a basketball match?” asked one of the orcs. A bald green creature of human size dribbled a ball with his huge, four fingered hand. “It was supposed to be a game of orcs against elves but we have uneven number of players.”  
Martin and Ray shook their heads while Dorian stood up.  
“I’ll join” he said. He took a final sip of the beer emptying the bottle and put it down.  
“Great” replied orc. He started making tricks with a ball as if he tried to show off. “You’ll join elves. Most of them are cowards so it was hard to find enough of them who would want to play.”  
“They just found it boring” replied one of the elves. “You may look strong but you lack dexterity.” He approached the dribbling orc and with one swift move he stole the ball from him before the orc managed to realise. Elf spinned the ball on his index bony finger. Can you even jump high with you stone-like legs?”  
Dorian run up to the group and they all headed to a nearby outdoor basketball field on the campus.  
“Looks like they got used to this world fast” said Martin.  
“They seem to like our games” replied Ray. ‘‘I wonder what games from their world they can teach us.”  
“Oh, so you care about something else than studying after all.”  
“Please” Ray pouted. “As a kid I was in tennis club for three years.”  
Martin and Ray looked at each other’s bottles. They both finished their beer and unanimously agreed it’s time to get back to the dorm room.  
“Dorian doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing here” said Martin as they were climbing stairs. “He seems like a guy who has body stronger than his mind. Like he uses his head to smash things rather than to think. I bet his rich parents forced him to come here.”  
Look who’s talking, Ray wanted to say but he stopped himself. “Now more than ever we shouldn’t give in to the stereotypes. A lot of them will crumble once we get to know exchange students more..”  
“Yeah, though those orcs and elves didn’t look any unusual so far. It looked like World of Warcraft setting more than a stereotype breaker… Actually how should we refer to them? Creatures, people, beings? It’s kind of unclear and I wonder which one is offensive one to them.”  
“It’s twenty-first century. If their world is any similar to ours, no matter how you call them they will find it offensive.”  
As they walked down the hallway, Martin suddenly fell back landing on his butt. He seemed to be hit in the head. It looked as if he hit an invisible wall. But Ray who was right next to him didn’t hit anything.  
“What the-” Martin tried to figure out what happened. He felt as if he bumped on someone but he couldn’t see anyone. Then, out of nowhere a navy blue colored elf with short green hair appeared in front of him lying on the ground, also knocked down.  
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching” he explained as he jumped back on his feet and offered a hand to help Martin get up.  
“Then stop turning invisible while walking” replied Ray through his teeth as his head still hurt from the impact.  
“There you are” suddenly said someone as they were approaching them. It was a humanoid cat. His yellow eyes glowed in the slightly darker part of the hallway. He had his shoulders wide spread as he was stomping hard towards them.  
“I have to go” said elf as he vanished and was nowhere to be seen. He turned invisible and only a sound of him running downstairs let them know where he run away.  
“Coming here was a bad idea” said the cat creature. He was wearing leather trousers that were modified to specifically fit the figure of his species and a t-shirt that was most likely from this world. It created a conflicting image on his cat body, not to mention the shirt wasn’t fit for him and it was revealing huge chunk of his stomach.  
“What happened?” asked Martin. “Did he steal something from you?”  
“He broke my-!” he said with angry voice but he suddenly paused. “What was your version of this object called in your world” he thought out loud as he scratched himself behind the ear. “Headphones. When I was out he borrowed them without asking but broke them when he tried to adjust them to his smaller head. Now there’s no point chasing him. This bastard will stay invisible for the rest of the day hiding on a tree. Agh, Multiracial rooms were a huge mistake.”  
“We can help you find him” said Martin.  
“And how do you expect to do that?” asked Ray.  
‘‘I have good tracking skills. Trust me.”  
Ray sighted as a response and he looked back at the cat person. “It’s your roommate so he will come back sooner or later. We can just set up a trap.”  
“I was about to do so, but thanks anyway. Humans seems more friendly than I expected. My name is Dart.”  
“Looks like with that many different races, chaos is inevitable here” said Ray. And soon after they heard a banging noise from the floor above that quickly confirmed this theory.  
“Back in our world it wasn’t like that for ages” explained Dart. “Maybe coming to this world made them feel they can allow themselves for such actions.”  
“Maybe you can tell us more about your world while we help you set up a trap?” asked Ray. Dart agreed and Martin and Ray followed Dart to his room.

Most information about the other world, which was officially named World Beta, was hidden from the common people. At least that’s how the things were meant to be until the plans to integrate both worlds and letting them coexist in everyday life was meant to be put into action. But when recently the exchange began and people moved in to World Beta while beings from there came to human world, none of them knew what they were getting themselves into without much knowledge about the culture of the other world.  
Dart was setting a bucket filled with flour above the entrance door while Martin and Ray were preparing the net.  
“Our race is called raksha” Dart was explaining. “After orcs we are the least welcomed kind in the cities. Actually even orcs might have it easier when walking to a new city. We are known as thieves and rapists. But most of this comes from the past when our instincts were still more of a cat than a human. We evolved setting our kind on even grounds with elves, dwarves and such. But opinion about us didn’t change. I think this is a good place for us to start from a scratch where others can’t judge us by our past.”  
“That must be tough. But what about more general view of the world?” asked Ray. “Your technology, your political state. Are countries still divided by races or there is another system? It’s hard to understand struggle of one race not knowing much about the rest of the world.”  
“I don’t care about politics. I lived in small town and never cared what the politics are about as long as there was no war our kind gets involved in. Rakshas have their own country, place all of us can always come back when they won’t make it into the society in other countries. Orcs stay mostly independent as well. Rest merged together over the years more or less. Dwarven country is filled with orcs. And elven one can easily get confused with a human one outside of larger cities with their buildings of elven architecture. After elves and dwarves flooded the parliaments of the last human nation everything fell into a gray zone. Now it’s just mostly elves and dwarves ruling over every country, getting into their own personal conflicts and every commoner gets involved. Elves were said to be defenders of nature, protecting it from being utterly destroyed from a growing industry but in the end they went for a power instead. Only few remained at the side of ecology. They made their own nation together with centaurs and orcs. Their beliefs and goal is what keeps them being respected by others. Because other than that they are just a group living in the forest, still walking with spears and bows like if they were stuck in the last millenium.”  
“So your technology is more or less closer to ours” Ray tried to guess.  
“I don’t know about your world that well to say it now” replied Dart. “I travelled through the portal two days ago. We have sky transport similar to your planes.” Dart looked around the room as he thought of more examples. “Our fridges look similar… I guess our technologies are alike in one way or another.”  
“I heard you have magic in your world” said Ray.  
It was one of the information media liked to boast about. Despite witnessing a world straight up from a fantasy book, the information they tried to convey to people the most was that on the other side of the portal magic exists. Humans on the other side were mages. Powerful, respected and feared wielders of magic crafts.  
“Yes. But only humans are capable of using it. None of the other races ever managed to use magic. I guess that’s where difference in our technology comes to place. Our devices usually incorporate magic in one way or another. That made whole world dependant on mages. I hate them like most do, but if I were to imagine our world without fridges or cars and trains it’s hard to want them to be completely gone. They just sit in their academies and do their research. Their life is filled with strict rules and intense training from the young age. They say mages never actually get to have fun in their lives. They are enigmatic, rarely showing up to the outside world. And when they do, no one even releases because they look like normal humans. And they don’t use magic in their everyday life. Most of them won’t cast a spell even if their life was at stake. I heard they came here as well. I don’t think I will get used to the possibility of mages living among us here.”  
Next, Ray took the turn in explaining to Dart a human world as they waited for the culprit to return to his room. Dart seemed to be aware of the most information Ray gave him, but only on surface level without details that gave him a better view on people’s everyday life. He knew people use internet as a common tool for gathering information and communicating with others but when he heard about facebook he became really confused and shocked. “But why sharing it?” he asked. But neither Ray nor Martin knew the answer to that.  
Hours have passed yet no one came to the room. Ray and Martin gave up and walked out.  
“Good luck in catching him” said Martin before they left.  
“His information was useful but he didn’t give us much detail” said Ray. “He probably didn’t realise as most things felt like a common knowledge not worth mentioning. But he’s from a small town, living only among his own race. Most of what he knows of the rest of the world comes from news and stories. Someone from a big city should tell us more. Or maybe there’s someone interested in history who can describe us how they reached the state they are in right now.”  
“That’s all you’ve got to think about now?” asked Martin. “I get it, it’s important and I’m interested too. But you don’t have to consume knowledge from thousands of books in one day.”  
“I just thought it would be funny to know so much about them and be able to communicate with those guys easier on our first day of classes. That would be quite impressive, don’t you think? Others probably still struggle to get along with new visitors.”  
Martin stared at Ray with a questioning squinted eyes. They looked to the side, near the window on the hallway was a human treating an elf and a dwarf with a cigarettes.  
“That’s way better than what we make from leaves of graveroot” said the elf.  
“Yes” said the human. “As you see our world has a lot to offer.”  
An orc walked out of the nearby room carrying a large bottle with a liquid of a dark red color. “Hey John, do you want to try our version of beer? That’s the true taste of orcish tradition. Takes down elf after one sip.”  
John looked at the dark liquid wondering if it’s safe to drink it.  
“I’ve been to Hellrack a few times” replied elf with pride. “My organism got used to your orcish tradition.”  
Martin and Ray watched this scene from the side.  
“Maybe we took a bad course of action when meeting our visitors” said Ray.  
“Looks like that” replied Martin with a rough tone. “Don’t worry, do whatever floats your boat and it will be fine. I’m going to meet some cute foreign girls. See ya.”  
Martin rushed downstairs while Ray was left on his own. Orc looked in his direction. “Hey, maybe you want to join us?”  
“No thanks” replied Ray and he walked back to his room.

Martin walked outside, he looked for any girl that was alone, maybe they were lost or needed some help. Since they were in this world just for a few days most of them probably needed help in getting around and understanding basic everyday life knowledge of this world. It was a perfect time for Martin to make his move. But who he should try to approach? Elf girls looked beautiful, especially those with long blonde hair shining even in this gray cloudy day. But he still wasn’t sure how he feels about their skin color that made them look like aliens. Turned out that there were female dwarves what already solved one of the questions mankind was wondering about as soon as the discovery of a World Beta was announced to the public. But they were to short and their faces looked too masculine. They didn’t depict female dwarves in fiction for a reason. Gorgons didn’t look bad, just like regular human girl but without hair that would add to their beauty. And snakes was scaring him off. How could anyone kiss a gornon without fear of being bitten by a snake sneaking out from under the towel or a hat? And if it wasn’t the case, what if their glasses slid down her nose and he would turn into a stone? Then he thought about centaur girls. But his thoughts quickly turned into a dangerous area and Martin, too scared of his own imagination jumped to his another thoughts. Martin saw a group of harpies flying by. They look more beautiful than he could imagine but they were still a birds. There was still the race of raksha, he decided to consider this option later, no matter who weird it was to even think about kissing a cat. Nymphs looked pretty much like just an extraordinarily beautiful girls mostly dressed in revealing outfits. Their etheric looking silhouettes was what made them distinguishable from the others. There were still many other races, disguised as a regular humans. Boy didn’t know what kind of beings they were or what signs could make him differentiate them from regular people. After listening to Dart’s story he started thinking about mage girls. Locked in the rigorous household, not knowing much of the joys from the outside world. He could show one of them so much of the beauty of this world. Almost like a picture from a cliche love story but Martin found this option quite appealing.  
Martin saw a girl in sunglasses wearing a yellow cone shaped turban as she was leaning over the fountain staring at its bottom. He quickly approached her wondering what she was up to.  
“Hey” he said.  
“Hello” she replied as she turned towards Martin. “Are you from this world?”  
“Yes. No mix up, no mage, complete human in flesh and bones from the day I was born.” He wasn’t sure what he was talking about but he kept on talking. He never had problems talking with girls, but now he couldn’t shut up his inner voice telling him that girl’s glasses might suddenly fall off and he will be turned to stone. He would turn into a decoration for the campus. A statue of random student next to a giant fountain. Why would they make a statue of a nameless student in such place, everyone would wonder. It’s just some idiot who didn’t know how to deal with gorgons, would be a reply of someone who knew better, how stupid the turns of fate can be. But no, Martin thought as his voice of reason returned. Nothing like that would ever happened. If he turned to stone they would just move him out not to ruin the beautiful scenery of the campus.  
“Then could you tell me” said the gorgon. “Why are there so many coins in this fountain?”  
“Every coin represents one student who relied on luck more than their brain” replied Martin. “As you see this university had a lot of fools in the past.”  
“They turned into coins after failing exams?” she asked.  
“No no no. It’s a superstition. If you think about a wish while throwing a coin into a fountain, the wish will come true.“  
“Oh” replied girl as she dived with her hand inside her purse. She took out a wallet and took out a two Euro coin and tossed it to the fountain. Despite Martin shouting trying to stop her.  
“You didn’t have to do that!” he said. “It’s just a superstition. Pretty stupid one, like most of them. It’s rejecting common sense for a belief of a greater force that controls our lives. Those coins come from fools who either blamed their failed exams on bad luck or went on with their lives thinking they passed it thanks to their prayer to the goddess of fortune. Lacking so much confidence they cannot even take credit for passing exam thanks to their own hard work. As if all the sleepless nights they spend reading one book back and forth didn’t mean anything. And it was two euro. Why? You could just throw 10 cents instead.”  
“I thought the bigger the value of the coin, the bigger chance for the wish to come true” girl said calmly. She looked at him confused, not sure why the boy was acting so strange and why was he making such a big deal about it.  
“That’s not how it works. In fact it doesn’t work at all. Congratulations, you just joined the sea of fools drowning in their own stupidity.”  
“I did it because it was interesting” she explained. “Experiencing your culture is fun”  
“Oh, you don’t even know how much weirder things there are.”  
“You mean like pornography?”  
Martin turned to stone. Luckily only figuratively as he was still made of flesh and the blood was flowing through his veins. Faster beating heart was the best reminder for him that he’s still alive. He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry because of what he just heard. All he knew was that this girl might get in danger once trying to discover this world on her own.  
“Better stay out of this one” said Martin. “You know, it’s better if someone properly introduces you to our world before you start playing russian roulette or slit your wrists.”  
“Do you want to become my tour guide?” she asked.  
“Well…” Martin forgot his tongue as he looked at the innocent gorgon smiling at him. “Okay, I guess I could show you this or that. But only for a few days.”  
“Wonderful” she clapped her hands and stood up coming closer to the boy. “What is your name human?”  
“Martin.” For some reason the gorgon giggled Her headwear began to move spreading in all directions as if branches began to stick out of it. Martin made a step back. “What’s so funny?”  
“In our language marti means idiot.”  
“But there’s no letter n. It’s not the same… Oh great, now everyone from your world will remember me as an idiot. What’s your name then?”  
“Luna.”  
“Oh, like a moon?”  
“No. Luna is a nymph from a legend. Once her lake got destroyed by elves who build a city on top of it she wandered through woods looking for new home. One day a troll found her and guided her to a sea. he protected her from all the dangers they encountered on their way. To show her gratitude she invited him to live with her in the ocean together. As the ancient trolls had brain of the size of the peanut, he agreed and ended up drowning.”  
“Why would they give you a name after such a tragic legend?” asked Martin.  
“Father said I bring disaster to everyone I meet” she said in a playful carefree voice.  
“That’s… great.” Martin was getting more and more confused with this conversation And he couldn’t find the right words anymore. “He must have loved you a lot.”  
Luna nodded. “When I was five he left me and mom to look for a dragon tooth to use it as a cure and turn me into a normal human.”  
Martin stopped himself from saying a word. This naive girl lived in her own world and she was happy there. Martin couldn’t crumble it just like that.  
“So being a gorgon is treated as a curse?” asked boy.  
“It forced us to live outside the civilization for centuries before they invented glasses. It all started because of one archmage. A woman who was in charge of the academy got ignored by every man because of a beautiful human girl living in the same city who was stealing all of her admirers. Archmage casted a curse on her turning her into a first gorgon. She got banished from the academy and gave bad reputation to all mages casting shame and disrespect on the entire academy. But they say when they were burning her at stake she said she regretted nothing and laughed madly. Being a gorgon is a defect, it’s not inheritable. Some human girls are simply unlucky and get born this way. Luckily gorgons can’t turn others into stone until they are about thirteen. And whenever I felt bad about who I was, mom reminded me of the legend behind my origins. She said that only kids who would turn into most beautiful girls in the world are born as gorgons.”  
“So your mother wasn’t a gorgon?”  
“She was a normal human, a mage from the best academy in the Glimmer country. She hoped to have a child who would surpass her in the craft. But as a gorgon I’m incapable of using magic and thus ruining her dream from the day I was born. But she loved me nevertheless. She was a good mother who was ready to give up on her career in the academy for the sake of me.”  
Just a few seconds ago Martin was ready to make some bad excuse and leave Luna as fast as possible. But after hearing her story he felt obliged to stay with her longer and help her get used to this world. Girl sat back on the fountain and Martin joined next to her.  
“Do you know of any bookstores nearby?” asked Luna.  
“Sorry, I just moved in here today. I’ve been to this city before but I can’t find anything here without using map. I have a few books I could share though. What exactly do you want?”  
“I love horror books. But stories from our world became boring to me, I’m curious what they are like here.”  
“Sure” replied Martin. “Then I’ll take you to a bookstore tomorrow. Let’s meet here at let’s say 10 am.”  
“Thank you Marti”  
“It’s MartiN. Don’t make fun of my name like that” he turned on his feet and walked away. Then he added under his nose “I will probably hear this joke about my name from others many times anyway.”

Martin returned to his room, both Ray and Dorian were already there. Ray was typing something on his laptop. Dorian was sitting on his bed pressing a bag of ice to his forehead.  
“What happened?” asked Martin.  
“Those orcs are tougher enemies than I thought.”  
“I thought you were playing basketball, not boxing” replied Martin.  
“I did. But the fight got really intense near the end. Time was running out and we were losing only by one point. I got carried away and that’s how I ended up. At least my sacrifice won us the game..”  
Martin burst in a short laughter as he looked at Ray. “I told ya!”  
“What are you talking about?” Dorian gave Ray a questioning look.  
“He said you use your head more than you use your brain” replied Ray without stopping typing.  
Dorian calmed down after hearing those words. “Our grades soon will prove otherwise.”  
Martin got annoyed by his confidence. I should try harder just to beat his score, he thought. He cannot be that good. When he will be wasting time improving his muscles I will study more to ace every test.  
“So” said Dorian. “How did it go looking for girls? You came back fast.”  
“I was just scouting” said Martin. “I’m not going to rush things.” He tried to sound as confident as possible, he didn’t want Dorian to think he just tries to hide his defeat. He didn’t lose, the part about scouting wasn’t a complete lie. He glanced at Dorian and Ray trying to guess their thoughts but they stayed calm and unmoved.

When the night came, Dorian was the first one to go to bed, Martin went to sleep soon after him. Only Ray stayed up, still doing something on his laptop that he refused to share with others. They turned off the light in the room leaving Ray with only his night lamp. Martin’s curiosity was peaking, before he fell asleep he was glancing at Ray trying to figure out what he was doing. Probably just studying, he thought. What else could he be doing? His brain got so messed up he forgot how to do anything else.


	2. Chapter 2

At 6 am Dorian’s alarm clock started ringing. It woke his roommates but the alarm didn’t last long. After about two seconds Dorian turned it off returning silence to the room. He quietly got changed to his tracksuit and left for his morning training.   
Ray stayed up till like 4 am, Dorian knew as he remembered waking up for a moment in the middle of the night, still seeing Ray with eyes glued to the screen of the laptop. Dorian started his training with a run around the campus. It was still dark and empty, not a single person or fantasy creature around. At least until he took a turn behind girl’s dormitory. In the horizon he noticed a single figure that was slowly getting closer to him. It was a girl, her blonde ponytail was waving back and forth. She went for a morning run just like Dorian. They passed each other. They didn’t stop to talk or to run together. They simply exchanged smiles. Dorian tried to guess if she’s a regular human from this world or some kind of fantasy creature. Without noticing any signs of something unusual he assumed it was really just a normal girl. Dorian was too afraid to turn his head around, he locked his eyes on one point in the horizon and tried to focus on his breath instead. He finished his running session after just two laps around whole campus. While doing the second lap he didn’t encounter the girl as if she suddenly vanished. He continued the rest of the exercises on the basketball field. Whole training lasted for about two hours, usually he was making one and half hour sessions but he underestimated the size of the university campus and the run took longer than he expected. Once he finished he didn’t go back to dormitory just yet, instead he headed to the nearby grocery store to make food supplies for the whole week. When he was returning to dormitory some people were already awake, walking away for a meetings or heading downtown. It was still quite empty so he easily recognized Martin standing near the fountain. What surprised him was that he wasn’t alone, there was someone with him. They were standing back to him so he couldn’t see face of Martin’s companion. But an unusual grey headkerchief covering their head made him guess it was a gorgon. Dorian was curious to the point he considered sneaking around to take a peak at them. This guy lacks tact, thought Dorian. How could he find a girl who would date him so fast? And if he did then why he didn’t mention it to us? He is the type of guy who would boast about it for hours. Maybe he’s still afraid she will dump him early on. Dorian returned to the dormitory hoping that Martin didn’t see him.

When Martin woke up Dorian’s bed was empty. He was sure he heard an alarm clock earlier on, it turned out it wasn’t just a dream. Martin jumped out of his bed and got in front of the mirror. he brushed his teeth and tried to fix his hair messed up by the pillow. He used deodorant, maybe a bit too much of it. He looked at his beard, too long. He didn’t shave for over one week, all this moving out made him forget about it. Beard completely didn’t fit him, he heard many times from classmates in high school that it just makes him look like a creepy stalker. He didn’t know how they came up with this comparison, it was probably just for a joke but he assumed the part about beard itself was true and it really didn’t match his face and he kept on shaving to keep his face as clean as possible. But now when he looked at the time on his phone he realised he doesn’t have time for it. He put on the first better clothes he found and rushed downstairs for a meeting. It’s not a date anyway, reminded himself Martin. It’s not about her being a gorgon, he tried to explain to himself. She’s just to weird. Weird girls are the most terrifying monsters that even dragons should be afraid of. He looked at the fountain, Luna was already there, this time she was in clothes fitting fashion from human world. It would be easy to confuse her for a normal human girl if it wasn’t for her sunglasses she was wearing in the Autumn morning and a grey handkerchief covering way to huge hair.  
As soon as she saw Martin coming a headkerchief began moving on its own. It got loose and part of it slid on Luna’s forehead revealing two snakes slithering out to the daylight. Martin froze for a moment, his legs refused to move forward. Fear paralyzed him. Luna quickly realised what happened . She ducked near the fountian to hide her hair from the public view as she fixed the ties of the headkerchief. Martin slowly walked up to her. What did I get myself into, he thought.  
“I’m sorry” said girl. “Sometimes they just can’t stay calm.” She seemed embarrassed about the situation, Martin noticed she was blushing and her eyes were wandering left and right.  
“Do they react to your emotions or something?” asked Martin with a shaking voice.  
“No! It’s really random.”  
They left the campus area, Martin kept a safe distance of one man width between them. Boy’s body was stiff and he couldn’t stop himself from constantly glancing at gorgon’s head. Every once in a while he could swear he heard a hissing sound.  
“They won’t attack you, I promise” she said.  
Feeling of guilt struck Martin. Today girl’s voice was calmer and quiet. Her aura of joy and optimism seemed to be gone as well. He started to understand how difficult it must be to her to interact with anyone. That even the girl who is so carefree still has her fears and worries that she had to live with since the day she was born because of a selfish curse cast ages ago. Martin forced himself to get closer to the girl. He grabbed her hand. She immediately smiled. He couldn’t tell if the hissing sounds started coming from underneath her headwear was a good or bad omen.  
They went to a shopping center, only few minutes by foot away from the campus. They saw that creatures from World Beta were already trying to show themselves to the world and walk among people. They tried to walk into the shops and make the best first impression they could. Sooner or later they had to anyway and everyone had time to prepare themselves mentally for it as the announcements about the exchange between the worlds was spread one month in advance, not to mention it was already confirmed it will happen sooner or later about a year ago. Yet now salesmen stayed frightened when an elf with a dark red skin tried to buy basic groceries or dwarf asked for a newspaper. Creatures even had a change to pay the exact price. Elf tried to ease out the cashier by starting a small talk about weather. It was a struggle for both sides and everyone felt uncomfortable without an exception. One could only wonder if this projects ends up succeeding or starts a war between worlds.  
As they walked into the bookstore they split up as they both were looking for a different books. Martin found himself in front of the shelves with fantasy books. The ones he used to love reading. Who needs fantasy books now, he thought. Even Tolkien fall short when faced against a real deal. Martin wondered what will future bring to his favourite genre. Will people keep using imagination to create their own fantasy worlds or will they use a real life experience, dominating genre with realistic urban fantasy based on truth or setting their stories in a World Beta? Boy looked at Luna standing at the other end of the store reading synopsis on the back of the books, one after another.  
“Did you find something for yourself?” asked Martin.  
“Maybe, but I probably won’t be able to understand most of them. I still lack the knowledge about your world.”  
“Just ask me anything you want. I’m your guide after all.”  
Luna put down the book she was holding and picked another one from a shelf above as if she was prepared for this kind of answer. “I’ll buy this one” she said as she showed the cover to Martin. It was titled Black Rose. “You’ll help me if I don’t understand something.”  
Martin didn’t know this title and he didn’t want to find out what it was about. “Sure” replied Martin. Deep in his heart he prayed she won’t ask him about any intimate scene.  
Luna walked up to the cashier. Woman’s hands were shaking as she scanned the codebar of the book. She dropped it on the floor.  
“Yes, I’m not a human” suddenly said Luna even though no one asked her anything.   
“What are you doing? asked Martin who stood by her side.  
“I’m a gorgon” she continued ignoring Martin’s question. “I have snakes instead of hair, but don’t worry they won’t attack anyone. If I take off my glasses I might turn you into a stone but those accidents don’t happen anymore. Gorgon has to be really clumsy to let that happen. I just came here to buy this book using your currency and I don’t indent to slaughter you or turn anyone to stone.”  
Cashier looked even more frightened than before, but she smiled and told girl the price for the book. After Luna payed, the cashier wished her to enjoy the book and waved to her as she and Martin left the store.  
“Common sense isn’t really people’s strong point” said Luna as they walked on a moving stairs. She stared down at a blank space as if she was talking to herself. “But if you remind them how unreasonable their fears are they immediately calm down.”  
“It’s still not the best idea to say things like that directly” said Martin. Though seeing cashier’s reaction was priceless, he added in him mind. “Is there somewhere else you want to go now?”  
“Ice cream” she replied.  
“You want ice cream?” asked Martin as he looked around, they were just passing by the ice cream shop in the mall.   
“Food from your world looks so fantastic. I want to try as much as I can from it. So many cuisines from different countries. They wanted us to come here with an intent to learn about this world and its culture. I think the best way to do so is by tasting your food.”  
“Do you prefer our food from the one in your world?”  
“In our world humans became monotonous with their dishes. On the other hand elves experiment too much, it’s like every meal is a new experiment and nothing ever tastes the same. I don’t like surprises when it comes to food. Orcish food has too much fat in it, no wonder they are so big. Dwarves usually make food that tastes badly but can stay edible for a long time. It’s a good deal for anyone who’s going for a trip but not when you want to eat a dinner that will please your taste buds.  
Martin bought two scoops of ice cream for each of them. Luna chose blueberry and mango flavour ones. Martin looked at her taking first lick of the ice cream wondering how she will react to it. He watched for her expression but her reaction was shown by a snakes going crazy under the headkerchief. Martin instinctively jumped back.  
Luna giggled. “Do you want to try too?” she asked while looking up. Martin Was about to reply but he realised she was asking her snakes. She slightly opened the headkerchief and a pack of snakes leaned outside. They were still near the shop where they bought ice cream and a girl who served them saw it all as she hid behind the table. So much for doing good first impression, thought Martin. Luna raised the waffle with ice cream and snakes started leaning out further outside to lick it. One of the snakes wrapped itself around the waffle. Luna giggled again. “Delicious, isn’t it my friends?” After taking a few licks, snakes obediently returned to their place under the headwear and Luna covered them from the sight.   
“Do you always treat them with your food?” asked Martin.  
“Only sometimes. They were curious what made me so excited. They don’t need food to stay alive but they have taste and they are so happy when I share something with them.”  
“That’s… cool” Martin scratched his neck. Once they left the mall, Martin again kept his distance away from the gorgon. But this time she didn’t seem to mind, she was happy and at one point she started humming a song.  
“I’d like to try sushi the next time” she said. “Japanese food looks particularly amazing. Could we go tomorrow?”  
“I don’t know if I will have time” Martin gave a safe reply. “I’ll let you know. Do you have a phone?”  
“Yes, everyone who came through portal was given one and they taught us how to use them.”  
They exchanged their phone numbers but Martin realised too late how bad of a decision it was. If this girl gets a chance to contact him anytime she wants, she might get out of control. He could already picture that after not checking a phone for a few hours he may find, she sent him over one hundred messages and he has at least twenty unanswered phone calls.  
“Just use it wisely” said Martin. She nodded her head but he wasn’t sure if she understood.  
“Actually” she suddenly said once they already entered the university campus. “Why can’t we go eat sushi for a lunch today?”  
“I already planned on cooking something for myself today” explained Martin.  
“Oh, a chef” replied Luna. “Do you think I could be of any help? My mother taught me a lot. She said that since I won’t be able to charm men with my beauty, my only way to their heart will be through their stomach.”  
“You have a lovely family” replied Martin forcing out a laugh. “But I don’t think my dishes are ready to incorporate ideas from your world. But I can just cook more so it’s enough for two people… or should I make it three because of the snakes.”  
Luna covered her mouth while giggling. “Two is enough. But won’t it be a problem for me to come in to your room?”  
Martin thought about his roommates, that definitely will be a problem. Maybe Dorian was still out somewhere but Ray definitely was staying in the room with nothing better to do. But, sooner or later they would find out about Luna anyway, so he could as well just get it out of the way today. “Sure” he said as he invited her to the dormitory.

As they entered the staircase they saw a poster on a wall, written in both english and language from World Beta. It was an invitation to a integration party for tomorrow night.  
“That will be fun” said Martin.  
There were two kitchens for common use on each floor. Each kitchen had an electric stove and a furnace. Martin rushed into his room in haste, took all the ingredients he needed and went to the kitchen. But all the sneaking was unnecessary as both Dorian and Ray were missing from the room. In the kitchen aside from Martin and Luna there was an orc, about two meters tall skinny creature wearing only grey shorts, he didn’t cover his hairy green chest. While Martin was preparing his pasta with eggs he glanced inside orc’s pot. A bubbles were raising from the grey liquid that maybe was meant to be a soup, there was a bone sticking out of it. It had a deadly smell that was infiltrating Martin’s nostrils, he felt as if he could feint in any moment. Luna looked unaffected by the smell as she stood calmly near Martin, fascinated by Martin’s cooking skills, she was really easy to please.  
“What is it?” Martin pointed at the pot and asked the orc.  
“We call it mukah” he said. “A stew with boar’s meat and elvish plants.”  
“Orcish cousine is for orcs only” said Luna. “That’s what most people believe.”  
“Maybe humans from this world will appreciate this taste better” said orc.  
“Could I give it a try?” asked Luna as she approached the pot and leaned over it to smell it better. “I visited one orcish restaurant. Mukah was one of the few things I enjoyed.” Orc handed girl a ladle and she took a sip of a boiling soup. “Hmm” she gave out a sound of satisfaction. “As good as I remember it.”  
“You know what’s good girl” said orc as he let out a growling laugh.  
Martin finished making the lunch while Luna continued conversation with the orc whose name turned out to be Chokar. They were talking about food from their world so Martin didn’t know most of the words they were using. The fact that after a while they switched to their own language didn’t help. Luna returned to Martin when the dish was already finished.  
“Oh no, I missed it.”  
“Don’t worry. I can show you how to do it from start to finish some other time.”  
“Yes, that would be excellent. Teach me crafts of cooking from this world my guide.”  
They returned to the room that was still empty. Martin borrowed Dorian’s chair so they could seat by the same table. But as soon as they took a seat the door opened and Ray walked in. He immediately stopped before stepping in as he tried to understand what was going on.  
“You must be Martin’s roommate” said gorgon.   
“This is Luna” Martin introduced her. “I just help her get used to the new world.”  
“He’s my guide” explained girl.  
“A guide” repeated Ray. ‘So that’s how you want to call it.”  
“Because that’s all there is to it” Martin said as if he wanted to convince himself more than Ray.  
Ray shrugged. “I guess it’s none of my business what you are up t. Nice to meet you Luna. You are a gorgon, right?”  
“Indeed” girl nodded. “Do you want to see my snakes?”  
Does she ask it anyone she meets, wondered Martin.  
“Sure.”  
“You fool!” Martin shouted as he leaped out of his chair. “We are eating.”  
But Luna didn’t stop and she wrapped out the entire headkerchief. She gave out a sound of relief as she took it off. Now both boys witnessed dozens of snakes tied up together sticking out of girl’s head. As they were free, they started spreading their slithering bodies in all directions. Martin could feel their stares on his body. It gave him goosebumps. He could see the place her forehead ends and the snake bodies begin. She looked like an alien more than a creature from a fantasy world. He thought he was getting used to seeing her snake friends, but after seeing her entire hair all at once he remembered why being a gorgon was considered a curse.  
“They aren’t aggressive” she said as she patted head of a snake with one finger.  
“Interesting” said Ray.  
“And scary” added Martin.  
“Would you mind if I stay like that for a moment?’ asked Luna.  
“No problem” replied Ray.  
Martin didn’t raise any objections as he didn’t want to be impolite. He had to eat his lunch trying to get used to the snakes on girl’s head being on the plain sight, but he had constant feeling as if he was about to throw out. Of course she treated her snakes with his food. This time she let all of the snakes without an exception take a bite.  
“Where have you been?” Martin asked Ray, trying to take his thoughts away from the snake hair.  
“With Dart. I was showing him a bit of this world. You could say I was his guide. Though not in the meaning you are using this term.”  
“What are you implying?” asked Martin rhetorically.  
“He’s implying you are trying to date me” Luna barged in to the conversation.  
“Yeah. So silly, isn’t it? You should feel ashamed Ray.”  
“My judgement was wrong then” said Ray casually. “I’m sorry.”  
“This is so wonderful” girl suddenly said.  
“What? Food? It’s nothing special, really. You just exaggerate.”  
“No, I’m talking about you guys. For letting me be here without me needing to hide my snakes.”  
“We are here to learn about each other and how to coexist after all” said Ray.  
“Yeah, feel free to come here anytime you want” Martin said without thinking. He wished to punch himself for saying that. He already pushed it too far and now he probably won’t be able to stay away from her for more than few hours.  
After they finished eating, girl left the room. She felt so comfortable she almost forgot to put on the headkerchief before leaving. “Others probably don’t wish to see that” she laughed it off and left.  
“Gorgon’s life must be tough” said Ray once there was only him and Martin in the room.  
“And orc’s, and raksha’s” added Martin. “They all have tough life in one way or another.”  
“It’s surprising how they managed to keep themselves from keeping an endless wars and even create a countries for everyone.”

Dorian tried not to throw out and forced a smile after trying mukah. He was sitting in a dorm room with two orcs. He met one of him, Grok, during the basketball game. Now he got introduced to his roommate Chokar who was preparing a stew for them. They were taunting Dorian until they made him try their traditional dish. Dorian was sitting on Grok’s bed. Surprisingly it didn’t smell bad, in fact the smell in the entire room was quite pleasant. Room was tidy and well organised. Based on the items on the shelf of the missing roommate, Dorian assumed it was a human.  
“I don’t think orcish food is for me” said Dorian twisting his face as if he was in pain, still feeling the heavy bitter taste of the mukah.  
“Hey Grok” said Chokar. “I’ve seen a gorgon just now. I’ve got to admit, she was just as pretty as the rumors about gorgons were saying.”  
“I imagine Cho” he replied. “They always have nice curves. Since they lack beautiful hair they make up for it by working on rest of their body. Have you ever seen fat gorgon? That sight would turn to stone without even looking into her eyes.”  
They both laughed, Dorian forced to laugh trying to join them.  
“I should be going” he said.  
“Wait Dorian” said Grok. “Maybe later we could do a rematch in a three-on-three basketball game. Only orcs and you. But you’re like one of us at this point anyway. You are orc in a pure form, you just lack green skin.”  
“He’s not fit for an orc” replied Chokar. “Look at his pretty face. He can probably get whatever he wants by just smiling. If he met a nymph, she would fall for him, not the other way around.”  
“Sometimes I wish I had uglier face” confessed Dorian. “Maybe I should be an orc.”  
“They say you aren’t a true orc unless you can drink a whole mug of beer in one go” he put a mug with orcish beer in front of Dorian. Still cold, taken straight from the fridge.  
“I need to prepare my stomach for this” said Dorian. “But just for how long are you guys drinking? I imagine orcs probably take beer after they are five.”  
“Thirteen” corrected him Chokar. “That’s how it works in our law. Problem is when orcs live in a mixed country, then drinking at this age is more questionable and it’s better to be careful.”  
“Tomorrow you will have a good chance to try it” said Grok. “We’ll bring our beauty to the party.”  
“I’ll be ready” said Dorian.  
“Everyone is afraid of drinking it saying it’s too strong” said Chokar. “I say it’s a matter of getting used to it. Young orcs are dying after their first time as well. But that’s how you become stronger and turn into a real orc.”  
Dorian looked at the drink again, now a bit less scared of this powerful alcohol. “Will my skin turn green after I drink it without fainting?” he laughed.

“Why would you think I wouldn’t go?” asked Ray. Dorian came back to the room while Martin and Ray were in the middle of the conversation.  
“I don’t know, because it’s you.”  
“I see.” Ray adjusted his glasses. “I guess I showed myself from a bad side.But I like parties just like everyone else.”  
“Are you talking about tomorrow’s party?” asked Dorian.  
“Yes” replied Martin. “A good chance to actually meet a lonely girls from another world.”  
So he doesn’t have one after all, thought Dorian.  
“Student council already organised such event” said Ray. “Damn, I wish there will be a spot in the council for me.”  
“What a fool” said Martin. “Of course they will let you in. I can’t imagine anyone more nerdy enough that would fit that position.”  
“So we are going together” said Dorian. Though all of us go there for a different reason I imagine, thought Dorian.  
“Are you taking Luna with you?” asked Ray.  
Dorian stopped himself from asking who was Luna.  
“I guess I should. But c’mon, she can make it on her own. I need to be alone or girls might think we are a couple. How can I hit on girls when they see me hanging out with a gorgon?”  
Ray sighted. “Do you ever think about something else?”  
“Snakes” replied Martin. “All I see is snakes. So no thanks, I’d rather think about girls.”


	3. Chapter 3

The inauguration of this academic year skyrocketed in student’s frequency compared to the recent years, but this year wasn’t an usual one and people probably expected to hear about what they should expect this year, with an exchange between another world coming to life. Thousands of students gathered forming a three quarters of a square on a field surrounded by three university building. The dean walked on the podium where he started his speech.  
“This year” he started with his resonant voice. “Our university will have an unusual visitors. We are honoured to be your host as one of the universities that got involved in this worldwide project. We hope this year will be a great start for your promising future in our world and strengthens a bonds between our worlds. But, that won’t change what this university has build over the years. We still expect all of you to work hard on your achievements. Don’t make this drastic change be an excuse for you to drop your scores. Represent your worlds proudly by showing the best of you. That goes for both of us and our visitors. Remember that despite all, you are all still just students. Tolerance is a keyword for this year. You are all mature, so I expect you to solve your personal problems like an adults without causing troubles. That, was just a warning. I don’t expect anyone to do anything too stupid, but I thought it was worth mentioning. On the more positive note, let this exchange be a motivation to you all. Try to represent your world by acing the tests and passing exams with even better scores than before. I believe this year you might surprise even yourself by what you are capable of…”  
Dean continued his speech with a generic phrases about education and most people turned off during this part. Only exchange students from World Beta kept on listening, hoping to learn something useful about what will be expected from them in terms of education. A whispered conversations began spreading in the crowd as less and less people were caring about the ceremony speech. The whole event lasted for about two hours.

“I’m not going to another one of those” said Martin as he stretched his arms as the ceremony ended after standing still like a soldier for almost two hours.  
“But someone has to” said Ray.  
“Are we going to check the student canteen?” asked Dorian. “They have already opened it today.”  
Everyone agreed. Student canteen was just a few minutes away from both the lecture building and the dormitories, in the top corner of the campus surrounded by the trees. As they walked in, the canteen was already filled with students. They waited for about quarter of an hour in the queue before they could order a food. When looking around, they managed to find one table still unoccupied, Martin dashed to it while holding his tray with a meal and a soup. He spilled at least half of his soup on the tray but he managed to take the table for him and his friends. Ray and Dorian took a seat on the opposite side of the table.  
“This food isn’t as bad as I thought” said Dorian after a couple of first bites.  
They all turned around as they saw a girl in short blonde hair approaching them. She wasn’t from this world, they could tell by her unusual clothing. A bright purple coat with a tight buttoned shirt underneath and a high laced leather shoes reaching almost up to her knees. She had a short skirt and the rest of her legs were covered by a pantyhose. They remembered seeing this kind of uniform on other people they saw in the past two days.  
“Could we join you?” she asked.  
“We?” said all three boys at the same time.  
A boy approached them, walking proudly with his chin high up. He had the same kind of uniform as his friend with only difference being his loose black trousers.  
“Let’s go somewhere else Ash” he said.  
“But Orion, we need to meet someone from this world sooner or later” said girl. “Mages cannot turn into outcasts here.”  
“They will want us to share our knowledge” he replied. “And we cannot do this.”  
“My name is Ashtoran’daal” girl introduced herself to boys, completely ignoring her companion. “And this is Oriontoran’daal. But you can call us Ash and Orion.”  
“You are mages?” asked Ray. “I heard they have those long weird names.”  
Ash took a seat next to Martin. “Yes. But we use full names only in formalities. On everyday basis we use the shorter versions.”  
“Why don’t just make them shorter in general?” asked Martin.  
“It’s something more of a title that tells what kind of mage they are” said Ray recalling Dart’s words.  
“Yes, that’s the shortest way to put it.”  
“But we already said enough” said orion. “Let’s go Ash.”  
“I’m staying here” she said while looking down on her soup, trying to avoid eye contact with her friend.  
Orion sighted before turning around and leaving.  
“What a prick” said Martin. “Are all mages like that?”  
“No, most of them are friendly and open. Orion is actually the best friend I had. He’s just worried about me. We are friends from childhood and I don’t know anyone else here, he’s the only person I know that came through the portal. But sometimes he goes too far with his protective side. I’m like a little sister to him.”  
“This kind of guys is the worst.” Martin pouted.   
“He’s just unaware he’s causing her more harm than merit by not letting her out of his protection” said Dorian.  
“What a fool.” Martin crossed his arms. “If you want I can have a little private conversation with that guy and-”  
“No” mage girl replied as she shook her lying low head. “That will just cause troubles. Not only on private level but it might involve other mages.”  
“You would end up turned into a frog Martin” laughed Dorian.  
“That would never happen” said Ash. “We aren’t allowed to use our magic for personal gain in everyday life. Casting curses became a particularly touchy subject after mages in the past cast a long lasting spells that changed the world for centuries. Wait, what was your name again? Martin? In our language marti means-”  
“So! Magic” said Martin almost yelling. “Can you use it in this world too?”  
“Yes, but we try to avoid using it when it’s not necessary. Despite I can’t say a word about most of the arcane knowledge of the magic craft I’m willing to tell you as much as I can so you can better understand the forces we are dealing with.”  
“What about language in your world?” asked Ray. “I heard some of you mention ‘in our language’. Does it mean all races and countries use the same one?”  
“Every race has their own one, not forgotten from ancient times and still used sometimes. But for a bigger comfort whole world began using a common language that derives from a mix of human and elvish tongue.”  
They took a break from the conversation to finish their meals before it got cold. They were glancing around as some students were particularly loud and were causing ruckus in the canteen. Martin managed to spot Orion in the distance, taking a seat next to people in the same uniforms. A group of mages sitting by two tables isolating themselves from other students. Looking too menacing for anyone to even think about getting close to them.  
“If mages come to tonight's’ party” started Dorian. “They might change people’s opinion about them and integrate with others.”  
“I don’t think we can” she said. “Parties aren’t a place mage should go to. Parties means alcohol and alcohol means poisoning mind that should always stay at its peak.”  
“Nonsense” replied Martin. “Most of the brilliant ideas come when one gets drunk. Maybe you should try it and see if there’s any improvement. And don’t say like you can’t go. Even Ray will come, that means anyone can.”  
“That’s enough Martin” said Ray in disapproving tone. “If they have a reason they cannot come, you should just accept it.”  
Martin forced himself to stop this argument. He was partially agreeing with Ray’s words but that wasn’t stopping him from spatting his thoughts out loud, knowing it will be difficult to find a common language with mages.  
“But we’ll definitely meet in the future” said Ash. “And then we can have fun together, just in another form than parties.”  
“So mages have fun too?” asked Martin.  
Ray again didn’t bother trying to hide his disapproval but he was also glad Martin asked this question as he wanted to find out answer himself. And that was a perfect chance to do so without being rude.  
“Yes, we do have plenty of games to fill our short spare times. Most of the activities don’t involve using magic. As it’s a time meant for a break from rituals and casting spells that gets exhausting after a longer time.”  
“What games for example?” asked Ray.  
“Oh, I know which one might interest you” said Ash. “This is one of the few that uses magic. It’s called light in the dark. One of the players is a seeker and other players try to stay hidden from him as long as possible.”  
“So it’s like our version of hide and seek” said Dorian.  
“You know about it?” asked confused Ash. “But how can you play it without using invisibility spell?”  
Boys looked at each other thinking who should explain it to her. “Uhmm, you just hide” said Martin. “You know, behind the tree, in the bush… in the wardrobe.”  
“Oh” she said as if she suddenly got enlightened. “Yes, that makes sense. It was so simple, I wonder why no one came up with it before.”  
“Maybe they just like to use magic in a free time after all” suggested Dorian.  
“Maybe it’s because our ancestors took pride in learning to cast invisibility spell. They could feel like elves while using spell version of their natural ability. One of the great steps in mastering natural tricks of magic. But, that’s just in the past. Barely anyone finds it really fascinating anymore. I should tell others about your hide and seek game. That might actually change a lot for our new students.”  
“Aren’t you supposed to gather more valuable information?” asked Ray.  
“Yes” said Ash. She just finished her lunch and stood up preparing to leave. “I’m about to do so. But every piece of information has some kind of value. Even if it looks simple and trivial to you. Before I go” she stood near the table and looked at Dorian. “I still don’t know your name.”  
“Dorian.”  
“I see. Ray, Marti and Dorian… I’m bad with remembering names but I’ll try to remember yours.”  
“It’s MartiN god damn it!” yelled boy but girl didn’t hear him as she disappeared in the crowd.

After boys finished lunch Dorian separated from the group as he wanted to check the campus gym that also got opened to use today. He heard that it’s possible to use it privately and wanted to make sure it’s true.  
Once they left the canteen, Martin and Ray noticed a raksha holding an elf by a neck while pressing them against the tree. They run to see what was going on. It was Dart and his elvish roommate. They were too scared to approach Dart who was at the peak of his anger with all of his muscles tensed. Elf’s skin tone on the face changed to a pale blue as he was hanging in the air held by his neck.  
“Aren’t you pushing it too far?” asked Martin.  
“If I won’t do anything now he will just keep on breaking my stuff” said Dart.  
“I...sa...id” elf tried to say but he had trouble to catch a breath.  
Martin stepped ahead and pushed Dart to set the elf free.  
“I thought you were on my side” said Dart.  
“That was before you tried to kill this guy!”  
“I would never do that. I was about to let him go before that happened. It’s just our predator instincts that lets us know how long it takes to suffocate someone.”  
What a skill to be proud of, thought Martin.   
“Thank you” said the elf after sitting on a ground for a moment. “I was about to say that I promised him to buy him back what I broke. I really didn’t mean to do that. It was just an accident, but after Dart found out I just panicked and run away.”  
“Running away from the problems usually just makes them worse” said Ray who finally joined the confrontation.  
“Buying them back isn’t that simple though” said Dart. “Rakshas use specific headphones that can fit their head and ears. The ones from your world will be of no use. And to get items from our world we need to sign on the list of shipment that goes through portal once a two months to exchange resources and items between worlds. They allow to take on a personal requests too.”  
“At least there’s a solution” said Martin.  
“Yes” said elf. “I already run to the administration yesterday to sign on that list.”  
“See? Everything will be fine.”  
“How can you be sure this situation won’t repeat?” asked Ray.  
“It won’t, I swear” said elf as he was waving his hands in defense.  
“Maybe ask to be moved to another dorm room” said Ray to Dart. He agreed with him by nodding his head and they both walked away.  
“You didn’t mean anything bad” said Martin as he gave elf a hand to help him get up.  
Elf kept on lying on the ground, staring at the grass beneath him. Ray reached his hand closer, almost flashing it in front of elf’s face. Eld immediately disappeared.  
“Hey, what are you doing!?” shouted Martin when elf turned invisible. “Get back!” He looked at random direction. He had no idea where the elf run to as even when looking at the ground as there was no signs of any steps on it. No footprints, no sounds. Was he floating above ground or they just learned how to make light steps, thought Martin.

As the evening began, the sound of party being held could be heard from kilometers away. As they were getting closer they saw plenty of people staying outside as the interior was most likely too small to fit everyone in. Flashing neon lights were set up everywhere. Around the whole building, on the ground and a disco ball hanging from a tree. It turned a place that usually was dark and barely lit, to flashing bright scenery. On top of the tree there were also nymphs, preferring staying in contact with nature rather than going inside the crowded building. They were teasing group of men standing below, falling for nymphs’ cute words and good looks. Somewhere else centaurs were showing off in front of people, still impressed by this rare species. One centaur offered human girl a ride. They heard screams as harpies where carrying a dwarf on top of the building. Everyone around laughed aside from the victim who looked down trying to find a safe way to the ground. There was an orc who got into a fight with a raksha. Dorian went to stop them but as it turned out, it was just a friendly fight over a silly bet. One of orcs recognized him and Dorian decided to stay with them. Martin and Ray waited in the distance for Dorian to join them back, but once turned out he prefered to stay with the new group instead they walked away. Martin and Ray made their way through people standing in the entrance blocking walking in or out to everyone. Recreation building was made of two floors and ten rooms in total, all meant for taking a rest after exhausting days at the university or for studying in quiet place. They walked into a room that had two large sofas and a couple of chairs. It was a room meant for watching TV and playing board games. But during this party TV was turned off as no one would hear anything from it over the noise of the music. The playlist was a mix of human music and the one coming from the World Beta. Their music didn’t seem to be that much different from the one from this world. It resembled a bit their folk and rock music. But as Martin and Ray joined the party they quickly stopped paying much attention to the music.  
Luna was standing next to the wall, talking with two people, probably from this world. This time instead of her shades, she was wearing a thick black framed rectangular glasses. It was the first time Martin could actually see her eyes. He looked at her company hoping that Luna won’t get into anything dangerous during the party. Boys approached them while Luna was giggling and didn’t notice her friends coming from behind.  
“Please, turn me into stone with your beautiful eyes” said one boy.  
“I can turn you into dust if you want” said a human girl that was with them.  
“My eyes are more deadly than beautiful” said Luna. still letting out a playful laugh. “But if you want a girl to bring doom upon you, you’re better of asking one of the nymphs.”  
“Looks like you are getting along with others quite well Luna” said Martin.  
“No” Luna shook her head while smiling. “I’m a victim of a harassment.”  
“Wait what?” the boy shouted. “Nothing I said was meant to be serious. I just wanted to ease out the atmosphere by joking.”  
“Excuse him” said girl as she grabbed her friend by the shoulder. “He tends to make people feel uncomfortable.”  
“I’m sorry” said boy. “Can we start over another time?.. Will you at least let me see your snake hair before we go?”  
“But you can only peak” said Luna. “I won’t reveal my whole hair cause they really wish to bite you after hearing all you’ve said”  
“No thanks then” he said as he carefully made a few steps back before breaking into an escape.  
Human girl looked at him before turning back to gorgon. “But they won’t bite me if I look at them?”  
Luna opened a small hole in her yellow turban making five heads of the snakes come out. “You can even pat them if you want.”  
Girl slowly tried to get her hand near the snakes but as she was about to get in range of their bodies she quickly pulled her hand back. “No thanks.”  
“They say courage is not looking gorgon in the eye, but being able to pat her snakes.”  
“Is that one of the saying from your world?” asked Ray.  
“No, my friend came up with that version of similar proverb. She liked to pat my snakes a lot. Maybe even too much. I think she could be lesbian.”  
“That’s startling” said human girl.  
Poor Luna, thought Martin. Abandoned by father and surrounded by creepy people all her life. It’s actually impressive she managed to stay so positive despite that.  
“I guess I’ll look around on my own” said Martin. “Will you be fine Luna?”  
“Of course, if anyone attacks me I will just turn them to stone.”  
“Did you actually turn anyone to stone in your life?” asked girl.  
“No, I was a good girl all my life. If I did, I would be probably working in mines as part of my punishment.”  
“That makes sense’ said Ray. “They probably have specific regulations and laws about gorgons turning people into stone.”  
“Yes. And, it can take from few months to even years of working in mines. It all depends on circumstances and if it was just an accident or an intentional murder.”  
“It must be hard needing to stay careful with your power all the time” said human girl.  
“Don’t worry” said Ray to Martin. “I can stay with her for a while.”  
“Can I join you?” asked the girl as she hugged Luna’s arm. “I want to see more on how you make guys feel uncomfortable.”  
Great, thought Martin. Now that I have them out of my way I can go look for girls. Those, who hopefully aren’t as crazy as Luna. Martin walked out to the main hallway and chose another random room to go in. He found himself in a library room. Definetely not in a state it should be. Crowded and loud room with dozens of full bookshelves filled with books no one here intended to read now. It was just a small room with a small choice of book. Actual university library was in one of the lecture buildings in the main part of the campus. A smoke coming from cigarettes was filling the entire room. A couple was making out next to one of the shelves A human man and and an elvish girl. As she had her back pressed to the shelf, books began to fall down.  
“Elf girls are so hot” said a guy who was standing right next to Martin. They both were probably looking at the couple making out.  
“Yes, such romance would be a great adventure” sighted Martin.  
“I’m gonna try my luck with this one” Man discreetly pointed at a group of three elf girls sitting on a desk and waving her long legs while gossiping or talking about something silly “The purple one” he added to specify which one he referred to.  
“Good luck” said Martin. You don’t stand a chance fool, he added in his thoughts. He walked somewhere to the side, still looking for a girl to try and hit on while occasionally glancing at the guy who just approached three elf girls. It didn’t take long before he turned from emanating with confidence smiling man to marked with defeat, walking away crooked up.   
“I guess it’s just as hard as with human girls” he said after returning to Martin’s side.  
Martin continued scanning the room in search for any girl he could approach. But when he found one, she was already talking with a human looking well-build male creatures who was looked normal until they started showing up their horns and tails.  
“And what kind of demons are those?” thought out loud Martin hoping that the rejected guy might know the answer.  
“Aren’t they like a male versions of succubuses?”  
“So their world has even incubuses” Martin sighted. “Great, they will be just stealing all the best girls… But wait, that means there have to be succubuses too. Hey, then maybe it’s not that bad after all.”  
“Yeah, but where are they hiding?”  
Martin turned off his ears to what he was saying afterwards as he spotted a single girl sitting alone by the desk near the window. It took him some time to notice her as she was just sitting quietly in the corner. Martin quickly walked up to her, afraid that soon an elf or incubus might steal his chance.  
“You came to this party just to sit on your own here?” asked Martin.  
“I wanted to come but I never really enjoyed parties” said girl. Martin could barely hear her quiet voice over the sound of the music and elves and orcs shouting nearby.  
Perfect, thought Martin. A shy and quiet girl, just the ones he prefered. This meeting felt even more lucky considering they were on a loud party where he didn’t expect to find many girls like that. She had dark long wavy hair that were almost shining in the light coming through the window from the lamps outside. Her body was covered by thick loose clothes hiding her figure. It was a human girl, but maybe that was for a better.  
“Then what about we leave this place and make our own party away from all this crowd” said Martin.  
“That would be great” she replied.  
“Yeah, it’s...Wait what?” Martin couldn’t believe how easy it went.  
“This crowd feels overwhelming” she said. “I’d rather go but I don’t want to be a person who leaves a party so early.”  
“Nothing to worry about.” Martin grabbed girl’s hand and they both walked out of the room. Martin showed a thumb up to a boy he was talking to a minute ago. They made their way through the crowd and left to a fresh air. It felt extremely cold after leaving an almost airless indoors. Martin left the girl’s hand while they walked away.  
The spot near the fountain was occupied by a group of humans, nymphs and dwarves. They had took a seat on a bench in the area near the dormitories instead. They could still hear noises of the party coming from the distance.  
“Much better, huh?” asked Martin.  
“Yes, I never expected going to party to take such a turn.”  
“Were there any orcs or elves making fun of you or something that you didn’t like the party?”  
“No one was bothering me” she replied. “I didn’t want to stay alone in the room so I decided to come. I found my roommate but we quickly separated and after that I couldn’t find a place for myself there.”  
“In my case I’m the one who left my roommates.”  
“Why did you do that?” asked girl.  
“Because I was looking for a beautiful girl like you…”  
Martin tried to stay calm but he was screaming internally. Why do I throw those cliche lines, he was asking himself. What the hell is wrong with me?  
“If you search for beautiful girls then there are plenty of nymphs on tha party.”  
“Nymphs are weird, I’d rather stay away from them.”  
“Yes, they are known for causing troubles” replied girl.  
“How do you know? Are you from another world too?”  
“Yes, but I’m just a regular human. And I’m not a mage. It’s hard to get used to this world when I didn’t know anyone when coming here. But at least I don’t bring anyone’s attention with my unusual for this world look.”  
“Well, now you have me if you ever need something.”  
“One of my roommates is a human girl from this world” she said. “But I barely see her and I don’t have much opportunities to ask her about anything.”  
“I have some spare time sometimes. What do you want to know?”  
Girl was moving her lips but she seemed to struggle to get any words out. “I… would like to see amusement park.”  
“That’s a very specific thing you are asking” said Martin. “Are you sure you don’t want to find out some other basics of how we live first?”  
“Is there a problem? I thought people go there in their free time.”  
“Well yeah. But rarely. Quite boring places. Really. And… okay sure. It’s not a problem. I can show you an amusement park.”  
“Great” she said while she lowered her head trying to hide her smile. “I was worried I will be the only lost one who won’t be shown what this world has to offer.”  
“Well, you are lucky I found you” said Martin.  
They spent the rest of the night watching the night sky and talking about each other’s past and how they did end up in this place. This girl, Lily, turned out to be from a capital city. She was just an average girl living an average life, coming from a middle class family with nothing unusual happening in her life. Martin used to think his life wasn’t exciting enough, but after hearing Lily’s story he started thinking thank maybe it wasn’t really that boring.

“I’m sure no one wants to see your snake” Luna replied to another man who approached her trying o have a chat.  
“Luna!” said Ray as he quickly run up to her. They split off only for a short moment. But looked like leaving Luna alone for even a second was dangerous. This time it turned out she didn’t need help as the man already walked away.  
“Your world has a lot of silly people” said girl. “Oh, look” she quickly changed topic as she saw something. “It’s rijah, an orcish beer. Let’s see if we can try some.”  
“No, wait” said Ray trying to stop her again.  
But at this point he gave up knowing he has no control of where she goes and what she does. He promised Martin to watch over her, but if she was to do something stupid he knew he won’t be able to stop her. They walked to a group of orcs with one human among them, all having a drink  
“Dorian?” asked Ray.  
“Your friends want to join us?” asked Grok as he looked at Luna and Ray. The human girl that was following them left after she saw her friend getting into troubles when talking with an elf girl and she went to stop him.  
“Gladly” said Luna. as she came closer and one of the orcs handed her a mug of rijah.  
“We’d rather treat people who never tried it before” said Chokar. “But others are always welcomed too.”  
“What about you?” Grok asked Ray.  
“No thanks, I’ll pass.”  
“One drink won’t hurt” said Dorian who was already holding his drink.  
Grok poured another mug of beer and forced it into Ray’s hand.  
“For a friendship between worlds!” Grok raised the toast.  
Dorian took a huge sip that made him twist his body, but he returned to normal after a while. Luna managed to empty the mug in two goes and she still looked perfectly fine, completely unaffected by the alcohol. Meanwhile Ray took only a small sip and it already felt as too much for him. Everyone looked at him. Dorian didn’t want to judge his friend but he found it a bit funny. Luna looked concerned about him.   
“It’s pretty good” said Ray trying to stay cool. He smiled and wanted to pretend he was alright, but he couldn’t hide his face that looked as if he just ate an entire lemon.  
Dorian finished his drink and they resumed the conversation. But shortly after, Ray stuck his tongue out as he twisted his face in agony and he collapsed on the floor. Everyone run up to him and tried to help him.  
“He’s like an elf who never drunk beer before” said Chokar.  
“We should take him back to the dorm room” said Dorian.  
Luna came to help, together with Dorian they put Ray’s arms on their shoulders and lifted him off the floor.  
“Do you want us to help you?” asked Grok.  
“No, two of us is enough” replied Dorian. Ray was very light, Dorian could probably carry him on his own easily.  
Everyone was stepping to the side making a path for Ray carried by Dorian and Luna. Ray tried to help and walk on his own but his legs were just collapsing as he was unable to stand on them.  
“I thought you humans are stronger when it comes to alcohol” said Luna.  
“Most of us are. But there are exceptions.”  
Suddenly girl’s hair began to shake under the turban. Luna began to giggle. “Calm down girls.”  
“You are a gorgon?” asked Dorian.  
“Yes. My girls are upset because they wanted more of the orcish beer” she said as she touched her turban.  
“So there’s some kind of telepathic bond between you? Are all of your snakes female?”  
“Of course” replied Luna as if it was obvious. “That would be pretty inappropriate to have men attached to girl’s head at all times.”  
“Tha makes no sese” Ray struggled to say.  
“Don’t worry” said Luna. “I know a recipe of a soup that helps one recover after devastating effects of the rijah.”  
“I feel something but I don’t think I’m drunk yet. Can it have some bad effects later on or in the morning?”  
Luna shook her head. “You should be fine- Oh my” she suddenly stopped making the whole group stop with her. “Isn’t it Martin?”  
Dorian looked at the same direction as Luna. It was hard to see from this distance but there was a couple sitting on a bench near the lamp. He could recognize Martin because of his clothes. But, who could be the other person? Did he already find another girl, wondered Dorian.  
“Oh, I see” said Luna. “He might be a little surprised.” she giggled.  
“Surprised by what?” asked Dorian but he didn’t get any reply.  
They walked into the dormitory and carried Ray upstairs. Once they put him down in his own bed Luna walked back to her room in girls’ dormitory for a necessary ingredients for a soup for Ray. It took her only few minutes to get back and start cooking in the kitchen.

“What happened?” asked Martin who came back to the dormitory late at night and saw wasted Ray shaking on his seat while Luna was treating him with soup, feeding him like a little baby.  
“Orcish beer was too much for him” said Dorian.   
”Wow, really? Too bad I didn’t get to see that.”  
“You could, if you didn’t decide to hit on girls instead” said Dorian.  
“We saw you making a cute couple with one girl. Is she human?” asked Luna while sticking a spoon in Ray’s mouth.  
“Yes, human but from your world. Humans from your world don’t look any different from us so I don’t know if that’s relevant.”  
“What if she’s more than just a human?” asked Luna. “Maybe she’s a vampire. It’s always better to stay cautions while meeting humans in our world. You never know if they are mages, vampires or something else entirely.”  
“Maybe she just lured you because she wants your blood” said Dorian.  
“I don’t mind” said Martin happily. “She can suck my blood anytime she wants. My neck is hers to take. Hey, that sounds pretty hot actually.”  
“Your body won’t be so hot once she takes your blood” replied Dorian.  
“Okay okay, I’ll be careful.”  
“C’mon Ray” she said in a sweet voice. “Open your mouth. Be a good boy. You almost finished.”  
Ray kept his head turned away until he eventually gave up and let the spoon into his mouth. “I feel too awkward” he said quietly. He seemed to be getting better as now he was able to talk properly and he wasn’t shaking as much as before.  
“Dude, you just got a gorgon nurse, why are you complaining?” said Martin.  
“I went down after just one sip, it’s so lame.”  
“It’s not lame” replied Luna. “Even some of the greatest warriors who survived volley of arrows and greatest flames of war, fell down like flies to orcish beer.”  
“What are you talking about?” asked Dorian.  
“That even the best ones have weaknesses. And that food and drinks are what makes up nation’s or race’s true strength. Can you really defeat orcs if their beer is too strong for your soldiers?”  
“That-” Ray tried to say but Luna forced more soup into him.  
“Great, then how powerful would you rate us?” asked Martin.  
“I’ll decide once I get to taste sushi you promised me.”  
“Oh... about that.” Martin panicked as he completely forgot about this promise. He already had a date with Lily in plans for Friday. “What about tomorrow? Thursday evening sounds good for such dinner.”  
“Excellent” she said as she clapped her hands.


	4. Chapter 4

“Are you alive?” Martin asked Ray as they were getting up for the morning classes.   
“Yes, that soup Luna made really helped me recover fast. I feel like a newborn child.”  
Martin and Ray were just getting up, while Dorian already finished his breakfast, today he woke up early again just to have his morning training before classes. As the three of them arrived to a lecture building they could finally see who are their other classmates. Looked like their group was almost evenly divided when it came to students from this world and the exchange students from the other one. Their group counted about one hundred of students in total. They didn’t know anyone there aside from Ash who was standing by the wall near the window all by herself.  
“Orion isn’t with you?” asked Dorian as they approached her.  
“He’s studying something else. He’s in another group” explained Ash. “How was yesterday’s party?”  
“Great” replied Martin. “Too bad it ended early for us.”  
“It wasn’t a problem” added Dorian, he imagined Ray might feel guilty for yesterday.  
“I’m curious about your parties, because mages are forbidden to go to any events like this. The best we can get are formal parties. But those are more about pretending to be someone you aren’t to work on your social status and gain connections.”  
“Don’t worry” said Martin. “Here we can show you many ways you can have fun. Hopefully without breaking your mage codex or whatever you’ve got there.”  
They had to stop as the professor arrived and the lecture began. They took a seat next to each other in the middle row. The day started with a math lecture. Ray kept on glancing at Martin, who to his surprise was actually making notes and paying attention to the lecture. So he can focus on studying too, thought Ray. Meanwhile it was Ash, who seemed to be bored and was drifting away as her eyes were slowly closing.  
“Is our math too confusing for you?” whispered Ray.  
Ash raised her head, as if woken up from a dream. “It’s too simple. At mage academy science subjects are just as important as learning magic itself.”  
When Ray looked around the class, he noticed a group of three mages in the front row, they looked just as bored as Ash and were too busy talking with each other, not paying attention to the lecture. Centaurs were also part of their group, since there was no way for them to take a regular seat they had to stand by the side with notebooks in their hands, Ray wondered if they find it uncomfortable. He tried to get back to listening to the professor as he felt he already missed something while looking around class. He peeked into Martin’s notes to copy all that he missed. He tried to do it discreetly, but Martin suddenly smiled, probably noticing what Ray was doing.  
“Could you show me today how do you have fun in your free time in this world?” Ash suddenly asked.  
“Sure, I guess we all have spare time anyway.”  
Ash picked up a pen, but she wasn’t going to write anything with it, she started toying with it and occasionally writing something unrelated to the lectures on the back of the notebook.  
Next, it came time for a macroeconomy classes. Here, finally mages were also paying attention to the lecture. It was Ray who had troubles focusing, as he constantly felt the girl sitting on his right staring at him. She kept on looking at him, but was quickly returning her eyes to her notes whenever Ray looked at her. Ray found it hard to write anything, while constantly feeling girl’s eyes on him. Eventually he started ignoring her and after a while the annoying feeling disappeared.   
As they were walking out of the class the girl stopped Ray.  
“Excuse me” she said. “Do you have a moment?”  
He agreed to listen to the girl while seeing how his friends walk away.

“Where’s Ray?” asked Martin as he was the first one to realise their friend was missing when they were already at the canteen.  
“He disappeared without saying a word?” wondered Dorian.  
Everyone looked at each other wondering where they could have missed him.  
“Sorry, something stopped me” said Ray who appeared out of nowhere and joined friends by the table as if nothing happened.  
“When you were gone” said Ash. “Dorian suggested we should go to the cinema. Also, do you have any camera? In our world we are still working on a recording devices. We already can take still pictures but we didn’t invent anything to record videos. If I could see one of your devices I could help us create our own version.”  
“I do” said Martin. “I’ll lend you it, but just don’t break it okay?”  
“Don’t worry. There’s nothing that a simple spell can’t fix aside from a broken heart. But even then you can use love potion.”  
“Looks like your world has a solution to everything” said Martin.  
“If that was the case, we wouldn’t be here.” Ash stopped as she started looking in the distance. Boys glanced to the side to see what caught her interest, they noticed Orion coming towards them.   
“Are we still going to library after classes?” asked Orion.  
“I actually have other plans” replied Ash as she was playing with her fork while looking at her meal. “Maybe you’ll join us?”  
“No, thank you, I’ll just go by myself then” said Orion before waking away.  
“Is it going to be like this everyday!?” said Martin as he suddenly stood up. The sound of the chair grinding on the floor made Orion turn around.  
“Martin!” Dorian tried to stop him. “You don’t even know what it’s all about.”  
Martin stood still for a moment, him and Orion were staring at each other. Orion had this bored look on his face, as if he looked down on Martin, he wanted to punch that face. Martin looked at his friends before returning to his seat.  
“Put some thought into what you are doing” said Ray.  
“I did. And this guy clearly needs to understand something.”  
“Orion” said girl. “Is a good friend. He was the first one who really understood me. If it wasn’t for him, I would run away from the academy long time ago bringing shame upon my family. I hated my life at academy, but then I met Orion and everything changes. But, I didn’t come all the way here just to read books with him. We are meant to explore this world. I don’t know how to tell him this, but I also don’t want any of you to solve this for me.”  
Atmosphere around the table tensed. Martin try to recover himself after his act by throwing out some jokes, they all laughed, but he could see Ash trying to hide her worried look and Ray stayed quiet for most of the time, probably judging Martin for his recklessness. He couldn’t guess only Dorian, just how much he disagreed with Martin? Maybe not that much, as he was trying to peek at Orion sitting by the table with other mages. Dorian was probably forming some kind of plan in his head to deal with this problem. Maybe his opinion wasn’t that much different from Martin’s, he just knew how to stay calm and don’t act on impulse.   
As they were eating another person passed by their table.  
“Hi Luna, do you want to join us?” asked Ray. Suddenly he was so full of energy, that Martin almost didn’t recognize him.  
“My friends are waiting by the other table” she replied.  
“Wait” added Ray. “That soup you made yesterday. It was incredible. It didn’t only cure me after the beer, but made me feel so refreshed. Could you tell me the recipe? What was in it?”  
“Snails are the key” she said. “They have something that kills the poisoning effects of orcish beer. I actually risked assuming your snails have the same effect as ours. But luckily it worked, so I don’t look stupid for treating you with a fake medicine.  
Ray’s face suddenly turned pale, he spat out food from his mouth on the tray. He looked as if he was about to puke, he quickly drank whole glass of water.  
“Let me know if you want me to make more” said Luna before walking away.   
“Sometimes it’s better not to know” said Martin before stealing the plate with meal from Ray. He had no intention in eating anything now, or anytime soon anyway. Luckily when Ray threw out the chewed food from his mouth, none of it landed on the plate. 

After all the classes ended everyone went back to their dorm rooms before heading to the cinema in shopping mall. Ray went to meet with Dart, while Dorian was reading a book. Martin was the most bored one, with nothing better to do, he browsed internet on his laptop.   
During their afternoon trip downtown, Ash still had her mage uniform on her making boys wonder if mages can even wear anything different. Boys all agreed, that out of the small list of movies they were playing, new horror movie will be the best choice. Everyone expected to see Ash’s funny reactions, but she stayed calm throughout the entire movie. It was actually Dorian who got too much into it and was the most scared during some scenes. Martin got bored with the movie after the first few minutes and his attention started switching elsewhere. He looked at Ash, she appeared exactly the same way she did back on the lectures, all aside from math that is. Focused and interested, sitting straight. Martin deduced she might be thinking more about analyzing the movie and its structure, than purely watching and enjoying it. If she had notebook with her, she would probably already write down few pages of notes about anything she noticed or even learned by watching it. For Martin it was beyond understanding, but it was a visitor from another world after all- most of the trivial things from this world were a new experience for her. But even then, it was probably only fitting for mage to have such an approach and if it was Luna sitting there, she would probably already laugh or scream out loud and her final opinion would be just a simple like or dislike kind of response. Ash probably could give a full review as if she was an experienced critic. He couldn’t wait to hear how much this movie doesn’t make sense, from a perspective of a person who have never seen any movie before.  
When the movie finished and the lights in the theatre turned on they were the last ones to stay in their seats, while everyone was making their way to the exit. Everyone looked at Ash waiting for her reaction.  
“So movies are the next level of storytelling” she said.  
“It’s hard to talk about plot here” said Martin. “It’s just a generic horror movie.”  
“It was supposed to be scary” said Dorian. “Weren’t you scared?”  
“Oh, was I supposed to scream or something? But no one else seemed to be scared aside from you. It’s like everyone expected what will happen.”  
“Because they make dozens of movies like this each year” said Martin. “But there was nothing better to see today. It’s all just romance comedies, action movies and horrors. And they are all the same. You better teach your world how to make movies fast. They will gain fortune on their own work here. It will be fresh and outside of standards everyone got used to. And if not, you can just copy our stories with fantasy setting. Imagine, they could make something like Lord of the Rings but with less special effects. With real orcs and elves.”  
“Some movie directors are probably on the other side of the portal, already thinking how to cash in on this idea” said Ray.  
As they left the cinema Ash immediately had to go to the bathroom. Boys waited for her outside.  
“Maybe the choice of movie wasn’t the best to introduce her to idea of movies” Ray thought out loud.  
“But she enjoyed it, so mission accomplished” said Martin.  
“She still thinks of everything from perspective of learning” added Dorian.  
“She looked as if she was there, just because she had to” said Ray.  
“You really can’t understand people, do you?” said Martin.  
“I’m ready” said Ash as she join back.   
“So, what do you think of this movie?” asked Martin.  
“Oh, I wanted to ask about that opening scene” Ash immediately replied. She probably had tons of questions on her mind and just couldn’t wait when to ask them. “Actually first I’d like to know why- No, I’d rather hear about-.. I want to ask about lots of things about movies, before I forget what I want to know. But at the same time I just want to ignore all the those thoughts in my head and just enjoy my time... Is it this world taking effect on me and turns me into a lazy airhead?”  
Dorian chuckled. “There’s nothing wrong with you. Everyone needs a moment of break sometimes. And recreation can be part of learning too.”  
Ash tapped her cheek with an index finger. “Could this work this way?” she muttered to herself.  
“Yes, and we will show you plenty of more ways of recreation” said Martin. “Mages are too tensed out all the time. This world will teach you how to press the break without turning completely lazy.”  
“Martin!” Ray scolded him. “You cannot force them to change them entirely like that. It’s not a good idea for us to force changes on a culture that was build over centuries. Not to mention it will be impossible for us to achieve that. We can only piss them off at best.”  
“What a fool” said Martin. “Overworking oneself is never a good thing. If something is a part of tradition, it doesn’t mean it’s good and should stay like this forever. If that was the case we would be still burning witches at stakes. And now that the portal is opened it’s the best time to for the changes. Wasn’t it the point of this exchange after all?”  
“But forcing it-”  
“Martin is right” Ash interrupted Ray. “Many probably won’t agree, but that’s what I thought when coming through portal. Mages could benefit from changes and they stayed the same for far too long. Adding only more restrictions on themselves as a way to make up for the mistake of our ancestors.”  
“Yes!” said Martin. “And you know what else should change? Your outfit. There’s nothing wrong with yours, but your wardrobe can be a good place to start the changes.”  
“Aren’t you pushing it too far?” asked Ray.   
“No, it’s the easiest way to show everyone it’s time to move on and evolve.”  
“That...” Ash started as she turned her sight to the side. “I actually thought about it too. But my roommate from this world is almost always busy. I didn’t have anyone who could help me with it.”  
“See? I’m always full of good ideas” Martin said proud of himself, mostly to provoke Ray than anything else.  
“And how are you supposed to help?” asked Ray. “Look at us. Our fashion sense will not only make her look bad in eyes of other mages but also people from our world.”  
“Since we are already here, we can give it a try” said Dorian.  
Martin grabbed girl’s hand and they run down the moving stairs. Dorian and Ray tried to catch up to them. They stopped in front of the shop on the lower floor. Ash walked in on her own, boys watched her as she was searching through the clothes. She stopped as she was looking at the jackets and started touching it to check the material they are made of  
Martin quickly run up to her. “This is an alley with men’s clothes.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around to show her where she should look. “There.”  
“Oh, that seems to make more sense” she said. “But, your fashion still looks bizarre to me.” She was looking at a fancy dress on a mannequin.  
“This one is more specific one” said Martin. “There are more casual clothes too.” He walked her directly in front of the place where she should begin her search. Dorian and Ray were still standing in the entrance watching all of this and realising it might take longer than expected.  
“Girls always take a long time shopping” said Ray. “And considering she’s from another world not knowing what she’s doing, it will take even longer.”  
Dorian laughed under his nose. “At least she’s having fun.”   
He looked at the Ash, picking one shirt after another examining them carefully, while Martin was constantly around her waving his arms and being overly expressive, trying to stop her from one choice and desperately encourage her to another one.   
“And Martin has probably some perverted thoughts already.” he added.  
Ray was about to agree, but as he kept on watching their friend and thinking about what he said today, Ray started thinking that maybe Martin wasn’t just following his perverted nature. Maybe now he was just an innocent child, who was just trying to help a friend. But it didn’t change the fact he kept his worries about consequences of Martin’s reckless decisions. I should just stop this madness before he turns Ash into a mage outcast, thought Ray. But Ash and Dorian were on Martin’s side, there was no way for him to convince them all. He knew he will regret it, but for now he simply stayed with them and watched.  
After a while Dorian and Ray joined them as Ash already chose a couple of clothes she wanted to try out, she headed to the changing room. It was taking her a long time to get changed. Mostly because she had to take off her mage outfit. Boys patiently waited for her outside, but the girl wasn’t coming out, they started wondering what happened to her. Ash, already dressed in the t-shirt and jeans and looked at herself in the mirror and realised what kind of mistake she did. Why I came here with them, she thought. I can’t show myself to them like this. She wanted to just put back her normal clothes and leave. There will be plenty of time to get a new outfit anyway, she didn’t have to do it today.  
“Maybe she fainted” she heard Dorian whispering.  
“I’m fine!” said Ash. She took a deep breath as she grabbed the curtain. “Please, just don’t laugh.”  
She walked out with her arms crossed and watched boys’ faces waiting for their reaction.  
“Wow” said Dorian. “Now she looks like she was from our world.”  
“She doesn’t look like Ash anymore” said Martin. “But it looks good on her.”  
“It’s uncomfortable though” she said.  
“Did you pick the wrong size? asked Dorian.  
“That’s not it. It just…. feels weird. I’m not used to this kind of clothes.”  
“Changes are always difficult” said Martin. “But I think even that grumpy Orion would approveit.”  
Ash lowered her head. “He will get mad, if he sees me like this.”  
“All mages are bound to disapprove after seeing her like this” said Ray.  
“I think female mages quickly change their mind and get jealous” said Dorian.  
“Maybe I’ll try something closer to our fashion” she said as she returned to a changing room. As least they didn’t make fun of me, she thought as she got a bit more confident. She put on a shirt with long sleeves and a buttoned long coat that was reaching up to her knees.  
“Maybe it’s a good balance of trying something new, while staying true to the tradition” thought out loud Martin.  
“It doesn’t matter what clothes from this world she puts on” said Ray. “Mages reaction will be the same.”  
Ash spinned around while looking at herself in the mirror. “I’ve been stuck in heavy mage attire for too long. I start to like fashion from your world, even though it still feels so weird to wear something like this. I wish we could dress however we want in our time free from our mage duties.”  
Ash returned to the changing room with a smile. But her confidence quickly disappeared after she put on another clothes, those were suggested to her by Martin. She screamed so loud that the entire shop could hear her.  
“I look like a succubus!” she cried out as she looked at herself in the mirror. Dressed in a sleeveless top revealing her cleavage and a short skirt, tight in the waist area. She refused to get out.  
“What did you make her put on!?” asked Ray.  
“It’s not that bad. She is just not used to this kind of clothing” he explained. “In your world only succubuses have such revealing outfits?” Martin asked Ash.  
Ash stuck out her head through the curtain, making sure they cannot see the rest of her body. “Mostly. I can’t imagine woman who respects herself to wear something like this in our world. This kind of outfit is associated with succubus trying to lure a man into her grasp, to ruin his relationships or marriage and cause his downfall.”  
“Gorgons, nymphs, succubuses” counted Martin. “Your world has a lot of female beings that bring disasters.”  
“Maybe it’s not because they are magical beings, but because they are girls” said Dorian.  
“That would explain a lot.” Martin laughed as he high fived Dorian.  
“That’s not funny” said Ash still panicking in the changing room.  
“Maybe you are just jealous of the succubuses” said Martin.  
“Who would be jealous of them” said Ash before sticking her head out again. “Those filthy creatures exist only to seduce men. They don’t even do it for love, feelings mean nothing to them. It’s all just fun to them, toying with someone’s life to satisfy their need, they were born with. They are just the worst kind of magic. If gorgons are a result of female archmage's envy, then succubuses are a result of male archmage’s lust.”  
“Are all magical beings result of some deadly sin?” asked Ray.  
“What’s deadly sin? But I guess no, it’s just a coincidence.”  
“If you don’t like this outfit just choose another one” said Dorian.  
Suddenly the curtain opened and girl walked out. She looked as if she was readying for a fistfight. “Just look and tell me how wrong it is” she said while standing straight stiff with her fists clenched.  
“Clothes like this don’t necessarily have to mean you are like succubus” said Dorian. “It can make girl like you look cute.”  
Ash run back to the changing room. None of the boys could tell if after hearing Dorian’s words she was angry or embarrassed. She took some time before calming down and trying out a few more clothes. But before she did that, she stood still near the curtain as she tried to eavesdrop what her friends were whispering.  
“You pushed it too far with this one” said Ray.  
“Hey, it was just a psychological trick” said Martin. “After seeing this, the other clothes won’t look that bad too her anymore.”  
She regretted hearing it, knowing that they tried to manipulate her from the start. It made her doubt she should trust them from the start. Ash looked in the mirror, she was still dressed in the provocative clothes. Future archmage shouldn’t dress like that, she thought. But before she changed clothes she looked at herself one more time. With mage girls having only heavy and covering almost every part of their body outfits, it was rare for them to show their natural looks. Ash got a strange feeling of freedom with those new clothes on. But she quickly threw those thoughts away. She won’t think like that once others give her a nickname of a mage succubus.   
Her mood quickly improved after she put on a dress with a belt around the waist together with the pantyhose from her mage attire. All three boys agreed she looks pretty, but Ash tried to pretend their compliments don’t make impression on her. She checked rest of the clothes without showing herself to others and decided to choose what to buy on her own, at this point she decided to trust her instincts and what she thought that looks good on her. When she walked out back in her mage clothes, she asked boys to wait outside the shop while she goes to the cashier, she didn’t want to show them what she bought.  
When they left the shop, Ash thought it’s finally over. But then she was reminded, she still needs new shoes for her new outfits. This was an easier part where Ash didn’t seem to mind anything they suggested her. She was more curious than anything. In the end she bought two pair of shoes, one for the comfort and one for a more elegant look.

They returned to the dormitory. As they walked down the hallway they noticed someone standing in front of the door to their room. It was Luna.  
“I didn’t forget” Martin explained himself before Luna got a chance to speak. “We just took more time than expected. Now we can go to that sushi bar.”  
“This food better be worth all this wait” she said. “Or my snakes might want to have a chat with you.”  
Martin left out a squeaking noise as he covered his face with a hand.  
“Try not to die” said Dorian as he patted friend’s shoulder.  
“Don’t tell me you are really afraid of me Martin” she said with a smile that gave Martin chills.  
“It’s hard not to be afraid of you” muttered Martin as they walked out of the dormitory.  
“She is kind of scary” said Dorian after Martin and Luna left.

“Are you sure I can come in?” asked Ash.  
“Sure, you can even take Martin’s bed, if he won’t come back alive” said Dorian.  
“That’s not funny” said Ash. “Gorgons shouldn’t be trusted. I hope he knows what he’s doing when meeting with her.” Ash walked in and one thing on Ray’s desk immediately caught her interest. “Is this a chessboard? We have similar game in our world, but our game involves more pieces and it’s a three dimensional gam.. But once I heard about your version of this game I couldn’t wait to see it on my own.”  
“Do you like this kind of games?” asked Ray.  
“I love them. I played a lot with my friend back in academy. I even got second place in the championships in Glimmer. If I continued my education in my world, this year they would choose me to represent Daal academy in world championships.”  
“So it’s a game for only mages?” asked Ray.  
“No, but they are the ones who play it the most, others rarely find interest in it. But once they do, you can be sure they’re good at it and can be a formidable opponents.”  
“Let me teach you our chess then” said Ray as he went to pick up all the pieces and started placing them on the board. Ash stood right behind him and observed him from behind his shoulder.  
“This game looks simpler than our game” she said before Ray even began explaining the rules.  
“Maybe for your standards it is” said Ray. “ I have to admit I’m not very good so a tournament finalist like you should easily beat me on first try.”  
Ash and Ray sat to the table, girl rested her head on both of her hands as she listened to the rules. Dorian, not interested in joining them, picked up a book. But before he opened it, he glanced to the side. Ash left the bag with her newly bought clothes nearby. Since Ash was too fascinated by learning about a new game, Dorian thought it was his chance to take a peek inside the bag without her noticing him. He leaned to the side trying to take a look. Meanwhile Ash glanced to the side for a moment, she subconsciously wanted to look through the window, but instead she noticed Dorian leaning unnaturally on his bed. She found it funny at first, but she quickly realised what he was up to and dashed to her bag while knocking down the chair. She hugged the bag and tossed it under one of the beds.  
“Don’t look!” she said.  
“I’m sorry.” That was all Dorian managed to get out of his mouth. He was too embarrassed by what he just did. He quietly layed down on his bed and got back to reading trying not to disturb Ash and Ray anymore.  
Ash picked up the chair and sat down with her hands under the table. “This is terrible” she said.  
“Buying clothes with us was a bad idea” said Ray.  
“No, it was great” said Ash. “Forget about it. So,how does knight move again?”  
Ray continued explaining her the rules, after he finished Ash felt ready to play right away. Ray wasn’t sure what to expect from her. Maybe the game will be too simple for her to the point she’ll make mistakes, thought Ray hoping to win at least one match. Ash was taking very little time to make her moves, but she patiently waited for Ray who was putting more thoughts into his choices. Ash was waving her legs above the floor and wasn’t taking a sight out of the board. Ray was intimidated by her confidence in every move she made. As if she knew how to win from the very beginning. Because of that, Ray subconsciously started playing more safely.  
“You could just take down my queen for free” she said after one of Ray’s move.  
He didn’t notice it. He felt ashamed for missing it, he didn’t consider himself to be a good player, but it was always him pointing out mistakes to his opponents. He gained a reputation of a chessmaster among his friends. Yet now he became the underdog making silly mistakes. Though, even if he saw this move he would probably be too scared to make it.  
“You probably left it in the open expecting me to do so” said Ray trying to cover up his mistake with a reasonable lie. He knew it had to be some kind of trap set by Ash.  
Ash didn’t reply as she kept only staring at the chessboard with her focused eyes. Ray felt irritated by realising he will never find out, if this one move was her mistake or a bait. After few more turns Ray was already pinned to the wall knowing that he has no chance of winning this round. He knocked down his king accepting his defeat.  
“So that’s the chess” said Ray as he started collecting all the pieces from the board. “It’s probably nothing compared to the game from your world. I would like to try it one day, though I guess it might be too complex for me.” Ray closed the chessboard and was about to put it to the side.  
“Aren’t we going to play again?” asked Ash.  
Ray looked at her confused. “I thought this game was too boring for you.”  
She shook her head. “It was really fun. It’s much simpler than our game, but that makes it enjoyable, it doesn’t require that much thinking.”  
“I’m no match for you and your strategic mind” replied Ray.  
Ash leaned out to reach for a chessboard and she opened it again. “But if we play long enough, you will eventually get better. Isn’t learning and improving also part of the fun?”  
Ray’s will to play suddenly returned. And this time he was even more motivated to do his best and learn from his mistakes to hopefully one day play on par against Ash’s skills. Disappointment from the roles of teacher and a student being switched also stopped bothering him. Ash started humming and she made her first move, starting a new game.

Martin picked a restaurant that had the good ratings online, while also having reasonable prices. He didn’t know which restaurant was good, so he had to rely on the opinion on the internet, as he made a choice on the run. Martin never tried sushi in his life, so it was a new experience for him as well. Gorgon was examining chopsticks trying to learn how to use them before their food was served. But Martin wasn’t a big help, as he was using them for the first time as well. Martin was looking at Luna’s eyes, now behind regular glasses instead of being hidden behind the shades. He started noticing how beautiful her eyes are. Beautiful, yet deadly. Her hazel eyes were almost luring to just look at them. Martin wondered if it was just her, or all gorgons had eyes like this as a way to make it easier to turn victims into stone.  
When their sushi was served, Martin hesitated before taking first bite, while Luna got into eating right away. From the way she was consuming one piece of a fish after another, Martin assumed she loved it. After a while she suddenly stopped when she was holding another bite right in front of her mouth. She looked around the restaurant and once she made sure no one looks in their direction, in one quick move she raised the food to her hair and pushed it inside her turban. Martin thought he started getting used to her snakes, as this and the occasional hissing sounds didn’t make any impression on him. But then he recalled how she was sitting in his dorm room with her hair completely revealed and then he remembered, that snake hair still causes fear in him. Martin shook his head trying to put those thoughts aside and actually eat. But as he picked his first bite he imagined that instead of fish he is holding a piece of a snake. He tossed the food to the side as he let out a short scream.  
“You don’t like it?” asked Luna.  
“I wanted to try” said Martin as he put down the chopsticks on the plate. “But I thought of something terrible and it made it harder to take a bite.”  
“Can I take your portion then?” she asked.  
Martin immediately took a bite and started chewing it. I came here, so I want to at least try if it’s any good, he thought.  
“It’s great” he said as he already picked another piece of fish. “Actually now I started wondering. What about eating snakes?” he asked. “Is it considered cannibalism for gorgons?”  
“No” she replied. “But it would feel weird and make my girls sad.”  
“I see” replied Martin as they continued eating.  
“Next time we should order food to dormitory” said Luna.  
“Why? You don’t like restaurants?” Martin started wondering if he did something wrong. From the start he assumed it was the best option, that Luna would like to visit various restaurants and feel its atmospheres. “It’s not the same when you eat it at home.”  
“It tastes the same, so what’s the difference?”  
“What about the atmosphere?” asked Martin.  
“Atmosphere doesn’t make food taste better” replied Luna.   
Then all this effort of going here was for nothing, thought Martin as he started eating faster. She doesn’t even like it, then who I was doing it all for?  
“But at home I don’t have to hide my hair” she said.

When Ash returned to her dorm room, Monika, her human roommate was there, but she was preparing to make her leave.  
“Busy with another of your mage things?” she asked before putting on the lipstick.  
“No, I actually…” Ash was about to rise her right hand to show Monika a bag of clothes she bought, curious to hear Monika’s opinion about her choice. But her hand was empty. I knew there was something wrong after I left, she thought as she realised that she left her clothes under the bed in boy’s dorm room. She started panicking, trying to figure out how to get the bag back.


	5. Chapter 5

“Ah, first Friday at the uni” said Martin when getting up from his bed, already thinking about today’s evening with Lily. Everyone was already awake preparing for today’s lectures.  
“That’s just a slow start” said Ray. “But before we realise the exams will be coming.”  
“Yeah, yeah” said Martin, who by this point already realised there’s no point arguing with Ray about importance of studying and just let him talk whatever he wants to. Martin moved his hand under the bed trying to reach for his bag with notebooks. But instead he felt there’s some kind of plastic bag underneath. He tilted his head to look what was it. He saw a familiar looking bag and pulled it out, everyone’s eyes locked on Martin.  
“Ash forgot her bag” said Ray with a calm tone.  
“What is it doing here though?” asked Martin.  
“Yeah, why Ash left it there Dorian?” asked Ray as he glanced at his friend.  
Dorian hated this look on Ray’s face, so calm and composed. But he knew deep inside he was smiling or even laughing from taunting Dorian.   
“It’s my fault she forgot about it” confessed Dorian trying to looks calm and natural. “So I should return it to her.”  
“Do you think it’s alright to do so after you embarrassed her by peeking inside?” asked Ray.  
“Martin isn’t any better candidate for this task” replied Dorian.  
“Just let the genderless Ray do it” suggested Martin.  
“Or” said Ray. “We can pretend we didn’t notice it and she will just pick it up when she comes here the next time.”  
“See Dorian? This a true genius in our room” said Martin. He opened the bag and started digging through the clothes Ash bought.  
“What are you doing!?” yelled Ray.  
“There’s nothing really embarrassing about it” said Martin as he put down the bag to calm down his friend. “But she bought that sleeveless top and a skirt, nice.”  
“Really?” asked Dorian who instinctively glanced inside the bag.  
“Who do I have to live with” said Ray as he slammed his face.

On Friday there were only two lectures in the morning, it finished before they even realised. On all lectures boys were sitting in the group of three, Ash kept their distance away from them and joined group of mages in the front row. During the breaks she was trying to talk with her mage colleagues. But in this group only Ash was smiling, probably trying to ease out the atmosphere, while others kept their stone neutral expressions. Boys wondered what caused that sudden change and if she tried to avoid them, but during the lunch time in the canteen she approached them and sat next to them like usual.  
Ash sighted. “We are here only for a few days, but other mages already did so much progress in their research. And I still have almost nothing.”  
“Will my camera be enough to help?” asked Martin.  
“Oh, I almost forgot about it yesterday. Yes that will help me to contribute somehow too. But I’m still slacking off too much. Maybe we shouldn’t go to amusement park today.”  
“Amusement park?” repeated Martin as he thought it was just his imagination and Ash couldn't possibly say that.  
“Yes” said Ray. “Last night we decided to take Ash to an amusement park. Do you want to come with us? We could also take Luna.”  
Martin dropped his fork on the floor. “Well. Thanks for the offer. Nice of you. Great. But you see. I can’t. i Have plans. You know. I’m Sorry.”  
No one questioned it and they simply accepted this answer except for Ash, who asked if he’s alright. Martin stepped away, as he went for another fork. Dammit, he thought, what will they think if they see me at the same place but being on a date? They couldn’t have picked the worse timing. What were the odds for that happening? But, was it really something to feel bad about? He didn’t do anything wrong after all. Martin tried to calm down before returning to the table.  
“I think you are actually the one making more progress” said Dorian. “You actually experience this world, while mages focus purely on their research from scientific point of view. They are just doing the same they did back at their world.  
“If only there was a way for me to prove my methods are better. Assuming they really are and I’m not wasting my time.” Ash sighted.  
Dorian peeked to the side, wanting to take a look at mages sitting by their table. But instead something else caught his attention, a girl in a long blonde hair. The one he saw for a brief moment during his first training after moving in to the dormitory. She was talking with a tall muscular man. Apparently he said something funny as the girl burst in laughter. Dorian noticed a tail swinging from underneath man’s jeans.   
“Do you have any demons in your world?” asked Dorian.  
“Yes, some. If you ask in the context of visitors from our world, the only demons that could come here are succubuses and incubuses” said Ash in contemptuous tone.  
“What are the exact origins of them?” asked Ray. “You said succubuses were born because of a spell just like gorgons.”  
Dorian turned away his sight going back to looking at his friends.  
“Succubuses are born from men’s lust. Lust is a catalyst that triggers the spell, that was incorrectly cast by an archmage Pegesuscural’nova. He wanted to create a spirit that will fulfill his filthy urges and desires. He wanted to cast a one time spell to create one being, but instead he made a long lasting spell that spread across the whole world like an infection. Ever since, once in a while a succubus is born from the magic to walk in physical world and serve the purpose of the spell. They keep a look of a young women and don’t show any signs of aging. They can be killed but that only causes their existence to return to the currents of magic and allows a new one to be created. It was a waste of spots to let them in. But they just blended in, pretending to be regular people, just to spread their existence to this world. If they succeed, the spell will really reach into this world and by that time it will be almost impossible to get rid of them once and for all. They will just keep on being created in this world. And incubuses are an example of how long lasting spells can evolve over time on its own. Creating male versions of those creatures with the only purpose to seduce women and young girl. I’m warning you, be careful when meeting new people from our world. Don’t fall for the trap of those creatures.”

At the evening, roommates didn’t question where was Martin going. But him spraying tons of deodorant on himself and fixing his hairstyle made it quite obvious what he was up to.  
Martin was waiting for Lily in front of one of the girls’ dormitory. He didn’t know which one of the dorm buildings she was living in, so there was a chance he was waiting in the wrong place. But after a while the girl appeared, but she was dressed up as if she was intending to spend a night alone watching TV. Martin wasn’t sure if it was her bad attempt to imitate fashion from their world or she just didn’t have anything better to put on. Despite that, she still looked undeniably cute. She would probably look amazing even right after waking up in the morning. She walked up to Martin lively and smiling as she waved to him.  
“I totally lost track of time” she said.  
What took you so much time, wondered Martin as he looked at her naturally cute face with no makeup on it.  
They took a tram and headed to the amusement park. If he heard Dorian and Ray correctly, they were already there with Ash. Martin was supposed to arrive first, but Lily took too much time getting ready for the evening. Martin looked at her standing calmly in the train and staring at the floor, there was just something weird about her that he didn’t notice when he talked to her during the party. Martin decided to stay cautious remembering Luna’s and Ash’s words warning them to be careful when meeting people from their world.   
As soon as they arrived and crossed the entrance gate, Martin grabbed Lily’s hand and quickly moved into the crowd, hoping his friends won’t notice him among hundreds of people.  
“Why so fast?” asked Lily.   
“There’s so much to see here” Martin tried to find an excuse. “There’s no time to waste.”  
“Are all people in this world always in such a rush?”  
“Yes, actually. Isn’t it like this in your world?”  
“Yes” said Lily. “At least I thought so until I came here. People here take it to another level. But I thought at least you will have some patience. That’s not how I imagined it.”  
“Okay” said Martin. He tried to pay attention to Lily, but he couldn’t help but to constantly look around to see if no one he knows can see him. This date couldn’t work if he keeps on acting so weird. But for some reason Lily didn’t seem to mind his weird behaviour. She’s blind or stupid, thought Martin. “So, what ride do you want to take first?”  
“I don’t know which is the best. You decide. I’d like to try everything. But I trust your choice Martin.” She was talking fast, almost bombarding him with sentence after sentence. “We can try everything, right? We don’t need to hurry anywhere. Whole night is ours.” He missed the calm and quiet Lily he met at the party, but he didn’t want to be picky now.  
They strolled to roller coaster, while Martin was holding Lily’s hand. While walking across the amusement park, they could see that other creatures from World Beta were spending their time here. Though, unlike back in shopping center, here people’s reaction to the strange beings walking among them seemed more positive. Harpies were taking people on a fly to let them see the park from above, centaurs tried to earn some money by offering people a rides. Dwarves weren’t allowed to the most rides, but even they found a place to hang out in and talk have a chat with people. Even rakshas didn’t seem to have much problem buying anything or taking a ride.  
When Lily stood right in front of their ride, seeing how high it reaches and seeing people on the coaster going through the part where it drops almost vertically, Martin expected her to be afraid. Maybe she’s more talkative now, thought Martin. But it’s still the same quiet girl he met at the party.  
“This looks so great” she said.  
Martin decided to stay quiet for now and he grew a fake smile.  
He always enjoyed roller coasters, they were making him feel refreshed afterwards. But during this ride, he kept on looking at Lily to check if she’s still as excited as when seeing it from the outside, or maybe she finally got scared.. She seemed to be excited, but Martin tried to pay closer attention to her wondering if she screamed from the joy, or she simply mimicked others on the ride trying to act like a typical human.

“That was way better than I imagined” she said as she hugged Martin after they left the ride. He suddenly got a strange feeling running down his spine, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.  
Martin’s excitement about this evening quickly disappeared. Everything this night felt so fake, but he couldn’t tell if it was him doing something wrong, or the problem was with Lily.  
They went for another ride, this time Martin chose bumper cars. Lily was expressing her excitement no matter what ride Martin was mentioning, making him wonder if she even knew what all those names meant. On their way there, Lily suddenly stopped as she looked to the side. Her attention caught a huge white bear plushie on one of the stands.  
“Can I get one?” she asked. She made a begging eyes as she wrapped her hands tightly around Martin’s arm.  
Bear was a prize for taking down all four pyramids of cans using four shots from a slingshot. Martin thought that if it wasn’t for girl coming from another world, this scene would be too cliche.   
“I’ll do my best” said Martin as he approached the stand and payed for his take on the challenge. He felt Lily’s shining eyes full of hope staring at him from behind.  
“Do you need a lucky kiss?” she asked.  
Martin wondered if heard the girl correctly. He pretended he didn’t hear that and tried to focus on his target. He tried to stay calm and not fall under the pressure. What’s so good about those huge plushies anyway, thought Martin. He took the first ball and prepared to give a shot, he managed to take down one pyramid of cans. Getting confident, he took another shot right away and took down the second one. There were still two more left and only two balls to shoot. At this point Lili was holding her hands as if she was praying. Martin tried to ignore sounds, she was making and tried to focus on hitting the target, he missed. Here goes the main prize, thought Martin. He quickly grabbed the last ball and shot it as fast as possible. Despite not putting any effort into aiming he managed to take down two cans from one of the pyramid.  
There were still plenty of rewards they could choose from, Lily was taking her time while trying to choose. Eventually she picked a frog keychain.  
“It will be reminding me of this night” she said as she pressed the keychain to her chest.  
This is going too easy, thought Martin as he was growing more and more suspicious. He tried to observe her face at all times, trying to notice something that would give away her true intentions. It was easy, as she wasn’t finding any of his behaviour suspicious. Whether when he nervously looked around, or when he stared at her. She seemed to actually anticipate him to look at her cute, hard to resist face. Maybe reason why they even got here in the first place was simply because Lily needed someone’s attention?  
As they were heading to bumper cars, Martin noticed Ray and Ash coming from the other side of the road. Martin quickly grabbed Lily’s hand and they took a sharp turn to the other road on the side.  
“We’ll take a longer path” he said. “You said we should take our time anyway.”  
“Yes, the night is long. Let’s enjoy it as long as we can. Look at this beautiful sky.”  
You can’t even see stars because of all the lights from the park you fool.  
As they stopped, Lily looked behind Martin’s shoulder. She was pointing at something. Martin turned around.  
“It’s called ferris wheel, right?” she asked.  
“Yes, good idea” said Martin. “Let’s go there first.”  
That’s not how he planned this night, but when they will be up there, they can safely hide from bumping into Martin’s friends. It was a perfect solution for now. Temporary, but would give him enough time to plan how to stay away from his friends for the night. They took a seat on ferris wheel and waited for the ride to start. Lily rested her head on Martin’s shoulder. Again he felt a shivering feeling in his body. She’s clinging to guys too easily, thought Martin, this girl clearly has some issues. The story of an average life in the big city was hard to believe from the start. But now Martin thought, that maybe the answer to his suspicions is simpler than something hidden in Lily’s past.  
“You aren’t just a regular human” said Martin. He made a statement, making it sound as if he is certain about it.  
Lily immediately moved her head away and slid to the other end of the seat.  
“What are you accusing me of?” she asked. Her was voice was shaking.   
The wheel was already moving, none of them could get out, they were stuck with each other until the ride ends. But Lily looked pressured so much, she could even be capable of jumping out just to avoid giving an answer. Martin kept staring at girl until she finally confesses the truth.  
“Who are you?” he asked in soft voice as Lily still wasn’t replying. “A vampire?”  
She lowered her head. After a moment, a pair of short horns grew out on her head and a jet black tail with a spiky end rolled out from under her trousers.  
“A succubus” she said quietly.  
“Wow” cooed Martin.  
Girl raised her head. She looked at Martin with a wide opened eyes. “What do you mean by wow?”  
“This is great. Does it mean you chose me as your victim? Does it mean I have my own succubus now?”  
“Succubuses don’t belong to anyone” Lily groused. “And I didn’t make you my victim. Aren’t you disappointed? The girl you took on a date turned out to be a demon who feeds on men’s lust.”  
“I heard you are hated in your world. But I think it’s just girls being jealous and spreading false rumors based on single situations.”  
“You would change your mind, if I started using my power on you.”  
“But I want to experience it all. Please, show me how it is to live with a succubus” said Martin as he got closer to the girl.  
“I don’t- I just-” Lily was shaking her head trying to find the right words. “So you don’t mind I’m a succubus?”  
“Not at all” said Martin while smiling. Maybe she is here only to seduce me, thought Martin. But it’s my cute succubus girlfriend, it’s hard to refuse such an offer. Martin got closer to Lily and hugged her.  
“I didn’t mean to do anything bad” she whispered to his ear.  
“Then there’s really no reason to like you any less just because you are magic creature.”  
They hugged, but Lily kept on looking down with her eyes, that looked as if she was about to cry. It took her some time before she felt better, she looked outside to admire the view from above. Martin, now knowing what he was dealing with felt much calmer, he didn’t have to be afraid of anything. All cards got revealed, they didn’t have to hide anything from each other anymore. Only thing bothering Martin was, if Lily was here with him now because she really liked him, or was it just a part of her succubus nature that made her want to stay close to him. But can succubus really fall in love?  
“If you don’t mind who I am” she said. “I’ll be the best succubus you could ever dream of.”

As the ride ended Lily hid her horns and tail. Despite Martin accepting her succubus nature, others didn’t have to know who she really was. She jumped down the stairs in dancing moves and spinned around on her feet while waiting for Martin to come down. As he walked up to Lily, he was just thinking of her and what kind of wonderful adventure awaits them. A girl who looked too cute and innocent to be considered a sexy demon such as succubus was now smiling at him. But losing focus on the surrounding was where Martin made a mistake.  
“Isn’t it Martin?” It was Luna’s voice coming from the crowd.   
Martin woke up from this dreamy moment, as he had to face reality and his friends who found out, why he couldn’t come with them. Luna was walking to him together with Dorian and Ray.  
“Oh look” said Luna. “It’s Martin, the one who decided to abandon us.”  
“I didn’t abandon you!” said Martin. “I had this date in plans earlier. It’s your fault for making the plans without asking if I’m free first. Where’s Ash by the way? Wasn’t she supposed to come to?”  
“She’s in bathroom” said Ray. “She doesn’t even mind using toitoi. She said she lived through tougher conditions.”  
“And who might your date be Martin?” asked Luna. She looked behind Martin’s shoulder and saw a girl standing away, trying not to be seen by Martin’s friends. Lily kept her head turned away.  
“It’s Lily” said Martin. “Just a regular human from your world.”  
“Do you remember what I told you about contacts with humans from our world?”  
“Yes. And I keep that in mind. But she’s normal, slightly weird. But way less crazy than you.”  
“It’s okay” said Dorian. “Have fun. Getting a chance to date a girl from another world doesn’t happen often.”  
“Thank you” said Martin. “At least Dorian understands.”  
“Why won’t she introduce herself to us?” asked Luna. “Isn’t it rude?”  
“She’s a bit shy” replied Martin.  
Luna kept on glancing at Lily and Martin tried to block her view by moving his shoulders left and right.  
“If you say so” Luna shrugged.  
“See you back in dormitory guys.” Martin strided away and grabbed Lily by the hand pulling her into the crowd, while she struggled to keep up with his pace.  
“I expected Martin to be smarter” said Luna.  
“No one who knows him would ever think he’s smart” said Ray.

“As much as I don’t mind who you are” said Martin. “It’s better not to reveal it to others, at least not just yet.”  
“It’s like our little secret” she said. “It makes it more exciting.”  
As Martin looked behind to check if they lost sight of his friends, he didn’t notice when Lily got on her toes to kiss Martin in the cheek.  
“Sleep well tonight” she said.  
Rest of the evening passed by quickly, as both of them could finally enjoy their time, without Lily trying to hide who she was, and Martin knowing why she was acting so weird before. When Martin took Lily back to the dormitory, she kissed him in the cheek again for goodbye. She doesn’t look like your everyday succubus, thought Martin, as he looked at girl walking into dormitory.

“Oh look, he’s actually here” said Ray as he walked into the dorm room together with Dorian and Ash, who hiding behind them. In the end, it was Martin who returned earlier.  
“Ash came to borrow your camera’ said Dorian.  
Martin dropped the phone he was staring at since he came home. He jumped off his bed and searched through the drawers. He picked up his cheap camera and handed it to the mage girl.  
“I will return it as soon as possible” she said as she bowed. “Thank you, I’ll be going now.”  
“Are you leaving so fast?” asked Ray.  
Ash carefully glanced at the bag hidden under Martin’s bed “Yes, it’s already late.” She walked out of the room.  
“What about-?” Martin wanted to ask but Ray covered his mouth with a hand.  
“This is stupid” said Dorian as he looked at his roommates. He grabbed the bag lying under Martin’s bed and rushed outside. He caught up to Ash when she was already outside of the dormitory. She was walking really fast.  
“Wait” he said. “You forgot something yesterday.”  
Ash looked at what Dorian was holding. In a stress, she scurried up to Dorian, almost tripping over her own legs and pulled out the bag from his hands. “I should throw them away anyway” she said.  
“What are you so afraid of? Those are just clothes.”  
“It’s not that simple. Even something so trivial can carry huge meaning and consequences. They will think I rejected my past as a mage.”  
“You can move on while still carrying your past” said Dorian. “And if you find it hard, we will be here to help you.”  
Ash looked inside the bag and she remembered she bought all of this for a reason.  
“Human girls really dress like that?” asked Ash.  
“Yes, you saw other people, didn’t you notice?”  
“I did, but…” Ash sighted. “What a strange world.”


	6. Chapter 6

Dorian managed to get permission to use the campus gym in the early hours, letting him make his Saturday morning training indoors. He was all by himself having a spacious interior and all the equipment he wanted for himself. Aside from him there was only janitor, who was close to ending his night shift. Dorian was doing push ups, sweat was already running down his entire body after over one hour of exercises. Then suddenly he heard someone walking in, a girl in a red t-shirt and jeans carefully walked inside, at first Dorian didn’t recognize her. He paused his training for a moment to check who joined him.  
“Ash?” asked Dorian.  
“I was told I should expect someone here. But I didn’t think it could be you” she said. “I got permission to use this gym in the morning. We discovered a huge magic current passing through this place and I’m trying to investigate it.”  
As Dorian didn’t want to stop his training for too long, and he still had a long way to go, he got back on the floor to continue doing push ups while talking with Ash.  
“What are magic currents?” he asked.  
“Our magic is different from how people imagine it in your world. It’s an invisible mass flowing around the world. You could compare it to clouds or a wind. Many of the magic is dispersed, hard to see but it’s there, like a soft wind in the summer that you barely feel. Magic currents are more powerful flows of magic. Like a strong wind able to create storms and hurricanes. That’s a denser mass of magic that creates the main paths for magic to move around the world.”  
“And you use this as a resource for casting spells?” asked Dorian.  
“Yes.” Ash walked slowly around the gym, as if she was looking for a small object she dropped on the ground. It turned out she was just looking for a certain spot. Once she seemed to find it, her body started raising from the ground. Dorian didn’t even notice when it happened. Was it her casting a spell or it was work of this magic current? If it was a spell, it was impossible to see because Ash didn’t chant any words or didn’t make any unusual moves with her hands. She began floating in air with her legs crossed as if she was meditating. “In ancient times it was just another force of nature that shaped the world” she continued explaining. “It was because of it that races such as elves and dwarves were born. It was only later when humans learned to bind this element and control it at will. Mages are able to create bond with this force, and with a bit of focus we can manipulate it using our minds. It still can act unpredictable on its own, but at least now we can make use of it. Your world didn’t have magic, at least we thought so until we did some research and started discovering magic currents. But, by looking at the patterns of the ones we discovered so far, it appears as they were simply brought to your world through the gate after The Great Revelation. Gate opened a new path for magic flows and it started leaking to your world. We came here expecting we won’t be able to use magic here, but it turned out it is possible. It also means that your world might start changing at some point. Magic will start affecting wildlife, earth, and maybe even people.”  
“So mages came here to study those magic currents?” asked Dorian as he switched to doing squatting.  
Ash kept on floating, she had her eyes closed and aside from talking she was probably also focused on the task she came to do here. “No. Mages have different specializations and everyone focuses on their field of expertise. I’m toran, which means mage of magic currents. I’m specialized in studying flows of magic and how they shape the world, both now as well as in the past. Some use this knowledge to predict what magic can cause in the future, like a weather forecast.”  
“Toran” repeated Dorian as he felt he heard this word before. “Like in your name?” He recalled her full name, that almost slipped away from his mind.  
“Mages’ names are made of three parts. First one is their original name, given by their parents, second part is given to mage after they choose a specialization. In my case it’s toran. Third part refers to academy a mage is affiliated to. I studied in Daal academy in Glimmer. The academy once infamous because of an archmage who turned a poor innocent woman into a gorgon. But now it’s a top academy in the country.”  
“So despite this long name your actual name is still just Ash. And the rest is like a title.”  
“It’s different than just a title. Nobles get titles that they can lose, archmage is a title for the headmaster of the academy, but he can lose this position or pass it to someone else. But specialization and affiliation titles are almost always bond to mage for the rest of their lives. Holding such importance, that they are becoming part of a mage’s name.”  
So serious, thought Dorian. After spending so much time with Ash, he almost forgot about how strict and conservative mages were. And he completely forgot that she’s still one of them.  
“There’s a lot for us to learn about magic” said Dorian. And enough for me, he thought. It would be better if she explained more when Ray was around, as he was way more eager to learn more about this. Dorian stood up to take a short break from his training. “Did you get used to those clothes?” he asked.  
Ash suddenly lost balanced. She started wobbling in the air before falling down and landing on the floor. Dorian run up to help her get up, but she looked as if she preferred stay lying on the ground, she was sitting without any intention of getting up.  
“I wanted to get used to them before I show myself to others” she said. She covered her face with both hands as she cried out “other mages will outcast me!”  
She felt Dorian’s hand on her head, she peeked through her fingers and saw him patting her.  
“You are still one of them. You work on your research. If you will believe you are still a part of them, they should accept it sooner or later” said Dorian.  
“New start is harder than I expected” she said under her nose. “Even spending week in a woods when I was thirteen doesn’t look that bad compared to this.”  
Dorian stayed with her until she calmed down and claimed she’s fine. She said she prefers to stay alone to be able to focus on her task. Dorian finished his training for today and left to let Ash work in peace.  
***  
Martin woke up both refreshed and scared. His last night was weird, full of dreams about beautiful girls surrounding him. He saw girls from his past as well as a strangers, probably products of his pure imagination, dressed in a sexy lingerie or being completely naked. It was the most lewd dream he ever had, too over the top, escalating more and more with each next sequence. In the morning he felt refreshed but he was also covered with sweat. He hoped he didn’t move too much in his bed when sleeping and his roommates didn’t notice anything suspicious about him. Martin assumed the dream had to be result of being close to succubus. It was too unusual to be considered a coincidence. At least didn’t didn’t show up there personally.  
When Martin looked around the room he noticed he’s alone. He looked at the time, it turned out it was almost noon. He also noticed that he had one message from Luna who wanted to meet with him in the library. Message said she will wait for him at noon meaning he had only few minutes to get there. He didn’t want to be late after yesterday when she mentioned how he “abandoned them” even though it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t join them.  
He quickly dressed up and run to meet Luna. He was hungry as he didn't have time to eat breakfast. While running downstairs he tried to fix his messy hair. He still had memories of the last dream flashing in front of his eyes. He had to fully wake up and try to get this out of his head before interacting with anyone.  
Martin stopped before stepping into library to catch a breath. He didn’t want to look as if he was running late here. Luna was sitting in the corner reading a book, aside from her there were two human girls with one boy, they were gossiping about mages. On the other side of the room there were two dwarves working on a project of some kind of machine.  
“He never talks with anyone from this world” Martin heard one girl whispering as he was passing by. “I’ve never heard him talking in our language, does he even know it.”  
Martin took a seat next to Luna.  
“You were waiting for me?” he asked.  
“How long does it take for an elevator to arrive?” she asked without taking her eyes out of the book.  
“I don’t know. Something between one minute to twenty years. Depends on how high the building is and how lucky you are, but if you are asking in the context of the book, then it depends what’s more convenient to the plot. It can open right away or never arrive at all, because character was meant to die from that killer chasing them.”  
“Are there any very high building in this city?” Luna kept her book opened but it was clear she wasn’t reading anymore. “I wish to stand somewhere high and watch the world from high above. Not from the plane, but on a solid building attached to the ground. In our world the highest tower is Drayg, the Great Tree in elven city and even it looks tiny compared to your constructions. Standing above clouds sounded only like a dreams of fools in our world. Tell me Martin, what are the highest buildings in this world?”  
“I don’t know, Burj Khalifa?” said Martin.  
“What about Eiffel tower?”  
“It’s not that high. It’s quite small compared to-”  
“I would like to get on top of the Eiffel tower.”  
“Why there?”  
“It looks nice.”  
“Maybe one day you can see-.”  
“I thought about going there next summer.”  
“You planned it quite fa-”  
“I already checked prices of tickets and hotels.”  
“Aren’t you pushing it too-  
“Would you like to go with me?”  
“It’s expensive. And when I said I was your guide I didn’t mean-.”  
“But France looks interesting. I can’t wait to try french cuisine.”  
What is this train of thought, wondered Martin. Does she change topics as she pleases or is there some twisted logic behind it? Martin started to get irritated by her constantly interrupting him.  
“I know some recipes for french food. I can let you try some” said Martin.  
“But it’s not the same as coming straight from France.”  
“I guess not.”  
“So you don’t have enough money?”  
“I don’t want to waste all my savings on that.”  
“But would you like to go to France if you could?”  
“I don’t feel interested in-”  
“Would you take your girlfriend to Paris?”  
“No. Yes. No-  
“You are thinking about it.”  
“God dammit Luna, I just know her for a few days. We were on only one date. How can I make such plans right now? I’m not one of those lunatics who imagine getting married after meeting girl for the first time.”  
Luna giggled. “So you aren’t sure.”  
“What’s the point of this conversation!?” Martin stood up and slammed the table with his hands. His voice echoed in the quiet room filled only with whispered conversations. Everyone looked at him with hostility. Martin quickly calmed himself down and excused everyone as he sat back next to Luna.  
“So elevators are slow” said Luna. “Thank you, that will help me to better picture this scene. I knew I could count on you.”  
“Why you wanted me to come here?” asked Martin quietly as he wanted to tone down before they make him leave library. His tone was still full of anger after him losing his temper.  
Luna put down her book and looked at Martin with her hypnotizing eyes. “Did you sleep well?”  
She put on her usual smile, deadly and evil disguised as kind and innocent.  
“Yes. Perfectly. Like a baby. It was great. I’ve never slept so well in my life.”  
“Good.”  
“Do you have any issues with Lily?” asked Martin as he tried to guess what Luna was thinking about.  
“You mean the girl you took to amusement park yesterday?” said Luna. “No, why would I? Is there anything wrong with her?”  
“No, she’s a bit crazy but other than that she’s perfectly fine. Definitely more fine than you.”  
“Are you sure about that?” asked Luna.  
“If there’s something you know just tell me.”  
Luna leaned over to get closer to Martin, he felt chills from hearing snakes on her head hissing so close to him. Luna brought her lips to Martin’s ear, he could feel her breathing. “But I don’t know anything Martin” she whispered.  
“I’m leaving!” Martin got up from his chair and stomped to the exit. He gained attention of everyone in the room, they were probably either tired of him causing scenes or curious what caused him to act like this. But Martin ignored all of this. Luna remained calm and returned to reading a book as if nothing happened.

He was on his way back to dormitory when he saw Orion walking out of there. Martin wanted to pass him, hoping to avoid confrontation but the mage was staring at him from the moment he noticed him. Martin knew sooner or later he will stop him to ‘have a chat’.  
“We need to talk” he said as he blocked Martin’s path.  
Martin could just ignore him and walk away. That’s probably what he would do, if it was only about him. But this was something important to Ash, he could just cause bigger misunderstanding by walking away without saying a word.  
“Yes?” asked Martin as politely as he when his blood was still boiling after his talk with Luna.  
“You and your friends should stop meeting with Ash” he said. It didn’t sound like a question, more like an order.  
“What about you let her do what she wants” said Martin.  
“You have bad influence on her.”  
“If you are scared of losing her because she meets with us too much, then just confess your love to her instead of locking her in the cage.”  
Orion clicked his tongue.   
“I don’t love her in that way” he said. “She’s like a sister to me.”  
“Yeah yeah” said Martin with bored tone. “If that’s the way you like it. I don’t care how you call it.”  
“She’s a mage from a highly positioned family” said Orion. “She cannot give up on her future just for the sake of playing around with idiots like you.”  
“What a fool” said Martin almost laughing. “If you really care about that ‘sister’ of yours, then why won’t you let her be happy? I don’t know much about your culture, but I’m pretty sure going out sometimes won’t hurt her career. If anything it helps her learn about this world. She does something most of you forgot to do.”  
He said something in his language. Martin considered it as the end of conversation, Orion would just ignore whatever he says anyway. Martin was aware how stubborn he was, but Orion was on a whole new level. Martin didn’t lose sight of the mage. He hid behind the tree and waited for Orion to get far enough for Martin to start following him. Orion was heading towards girls’ dormitories. That would most likely mean only one thing. He probably wanted to talk with his ‘sister’ about her recent behaviour. Martin was too concerned to just sit and wait for Ash to come to them crying. Or she could just hide her conflict with Orion from them entirely, not sharing with them any of her struggles. The hardest part was getting through the center of the campus, long distance without any trees nearby, fountain was the only cover he could use. Martin had to make it quickly from behind the tree and duck near the fountain without Orion turning behind for even a split second. Martin realised he puts more effort in trying to stay hidden than he needed, Orion kept walking straight without ever looking around. Selfish prick doesn’t bother with anything, thought Martin.   
After continuing to follow Orion they reached an area between two girls’ dormitories. Ash was sitting there alone on a bench. She was dressed in human clothes she bought when they went out with them last time. Ash slowly walked up to Orion with her arms crossed. She was too scared of Orion’s judgement on her clothing and Orion was too focused on girl’s unusual outfit letting Martin safely get very close to them and hide behind the tree where he could hear all they were saying. Martin didn’t think this plan through, as quickly he realised overhearing a conversation won’t help him as they were talking in their own language. Orion started, he was probably scolding Ash for something. After he finished, girl took a deep breath before shouting out her reply. But Orion kept on arguing with her, during their back and forths Ash was getting more and more quiet until the point where she just nodded her head to what Orion was telling her. After an incredibly long Orion’s rant, Ash muttered something before Orion turned his back and walked away. Ash walked in the opposite direction and Martin pressed his back harder against the trunk of the tree as she was passing right next to him. Just as he thought he managed to avoid being spotted, Ash turned around, probably to look at Orion.  
“You?” asked Ash. “What are you doing here?”  
Martin scratched his neck. “I was waiting for someone. I was around. And that girl. Quite funny. Long story. But boring actually.”  
“You saw me and Orion” she said.  
“Well, yes” admitted Martin. “But I didn’t know what you were talking about so it’s not like I was eavesdropping you.”  
“That doesn’t matter. You could guess a lot from just seeing us... But forget about it. It’s my problem and you shouldn’t get yourself involved with this.” Ash sighted. “Do you know where is Dorian now?”  
Martin shook his head.  
“What about Ray?” she asked but Martin shrugged as he didn’t know this either.. “And… I'm sorry, I actually forgot your name. I just remember it was something funny.”  
Out of us three she had to forget about me, he grumbled. “It’s Martin. Sounds like one of your words. But just don’t forget about N at the end.”  
Ash moved her lips without saying anything, repeating his name in her head to etch it i. “Could I stay at your room for a while Martin? I need to take some time in place where no one can find me.”  
“Just use invisibility spell” suggested Martin.  
“I already strayed away from mage codex too much. I can’t let myself break yet another rule.”  
“What kind of mage isn’t allowed to use magic?” asked Martin.  
“Magic is a resource” explained Ash. “A limited one, just like trees or water.”  
Anyway, if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to stay at your own room? It must feel safer.”  
“I can’t really rest there” replied Ash. “My roommate can’t stay quiet for too long.”  
Martin lead Ash to his room. As soon as they got in, Ash fell face down on the bed nearest to the entrance, which actually belonged to Martin. He took a seat on the chair and looked through the window, there was a sunny weather making it feel like it was still summer if it wasn’t for a cold wind. This day looked too good to turn out so terrible.  
“I guess this day started shitty for both of us” said Martin.  
Ash didn’t reply, her lifeless body was laying down on the bed with only her one hand occasionally twitching. Sure, thought Martin, just take your time and rest, being mage doesn’t mean you can’t take time to recover physically and mentally. Maybe it all wouldn’t be so hard for Ash and in a few days she would be fine again. But she probably felt a huge pressure from other mages and Orion in particular making it harder for her to deal with her problem, making even simple problem escalate to a life threatening disaster in her head.  
“Orion was right” said Ash as she rolled on her side. Now Martin could see the absent look on her face as she glanced at him. She rested her head on her arm. “If I keep on going like this I will just disappoint my family.”  
“Who needs their approval anyway” replied Martin. “Parents only choose stupid career paths for their kids, that they themselves couldn’t accomplish. It’s like their way of trying again. Using kids as their second try on reaching their dreams.”  
“My case is different. My parents already reached their goals. Father is mayor and this year he candidates to become the president of Glimmer. Mother was a war veteran who got promoted to a general. And in this family full of successes I was meant to be another achievement to a collection by becoming an archmage.”  
“But do YOU want to become an archmage?” asked Martin.  
“...Yes” replied Ash with confidence.  
“You took like two seconds too long to reply” said Martin as he was exactly counting how long it took Ash before giving an answer. “If you cannot respond to this question immediately then it’s most likely not what you want.”  
“But I don’t have a choice” said Ash. “And it’s not bad of a choice either. I really love idea of becoming an archmage.”  
“Maybe you really don’t have a choice. I don’t know how it is to have such an important people in the family, and I most definitely don’t know much about mages. So my advice will most likely won’t help you much.”  
“I thought coming to this world will let me have a fresh start” she muttered. “That everything can suddenly change.”  
“You still have a chance to do so. And you are already on a way to making changes. Coming here didn’t suddenly solve your problems, but at least you gained a new perspective. And now you actually get a chance to think, if you want to become an archmage and why you are doing this. If you didn’t come to this world maybe it would be easier, but I can imagine you wouldn’t be very happy in that future, because you would never give yourself a time to think of what you are doing. If you have to- become an archmage. But do it for yourself, not just because others expect you to do this.”  
Ash rolled on the bed again, turning her head towards the wall. She stayed silent for a moment. Martin expected she won’t be willing to talk more and he got up to make tea for both of them.  
“Do you know how to play chess?” asked Ash.  
“A bit” replied Martin. “I know the rules but I’m not very good.”  
“Ray has a chessboard. Do you want to play?”  
“Sure” he replied as he went to Ray’s desk to look for his chess. He wasn’t keen on playing chess but with Ash in this situation he would agree to do anything.   
Martin and Ash were placing their pieces on the board. Martin already knew it will be a one sided match but he wanted to try at least a bit not to completely bore Ash. When he thought they are ready to start, Ash switched positions of Martin’s king and queen pieces. Martin placed them incorrectly, he was always confusing which of those two goes to the left and which one to the right.  
“Do you think Orion will forgive me?” asked Ash.  
“Of course” replied Martin. “Even he cannot be so stupid to keep a grudge because of something so silly.”  
Those words didn’t turn out to be helpful to Ash, she still had a worried look. But at least now she was thinking about it less while part of her brain had to focus on playing the game.

When Ray came to visit Dart in the morning, he finally got a chance to meet his second roommate- a dwarf Boron. Sawing noises echoing through the hallway turned out to come from this room as dwarf was cutting chunks of wooden planks annoying neighbours from the early morning. When Ray came in, Dart was sitting quietly curled up on his bed in the corner of the room.  
“Those idiots forgot to make desks with the right size for dwarves” said Boron.  
And when Ray looked at what kind of strange project dwarf was working, the wooden boards glued together really started resembling a desk. Just way smaller and more massive and heavy-looking than an usual one.  
“Dwarves say that if you don’t have something, you just make it” explained Dart. “Unlike elves’ motto saying that if you don’t have something, just buy it.”  
At least he’s having fun, thought Ray while looking at Boron absorbed in his work.  
“Our elf roommate barely ever shows up in this room since the first day here” said Dart.  
“Really?” asked Ray. “At least he doesn’t cause you troubles anymore”  
“Finally” said Boron as he took a few steps back to look at his finished work. “Now that’s a workbench I can use.”  
“Dwarves are probably better engineers than economists” thought out loud Ray.  
“Yes. That’s why most of us came here to study economy. We don’t want to die in the world of business here. Just wait, your world won’t be as it seems, once it gets introduced to dwarven craftsmanship. Me and my friends will open a workshops, that will be known worldwide.”  
“I think your technology might still be a little behind here for you to succeed” said Ray.  
“Technology? Yes, but if we were to work on that, we would need a help of mages. Some of us studies to become engineers, to hopefully one day be on par with your world when it comes to making devices and machines. But I’m talking about furnitures and decorations. My friends and I came up with this idea. Rich idiots will kill to get a rare bed made in dwarven style.”  
At least they have plan on what to do for living in this world, thought Ray. Unlike mages who still only think of themselves and their world.  
“How about you Dart?” asked Ray. “Why you came to study here?”  
“I don’t know” he replied. “I just wanted a better life. Everyone was telling me I was too smart and my potential would be wasted in our country. But I didn’t want to move out to another one where they would look at me like a criminal. But I was lucky enough to get a spot in this exchange and go through the portal, so my dilemma was solved.”  
Giving common people chance to apply to take part in this exchange was one of the best idea they could come up with. If only rich and elite could be chosen to go through portal, it would create huge class divide and make it hard to communicate with each other. But by seeing everyday people from another world, they actually let people from both worlds find a common language.  
“So you managed to get used to this world?” asked Ray. “People here don’t treat you like back in your old world?”  
“I guess they are more friendly” replied Dart. “Except for one thing. Some people here refer to our race as furries. Is it meant in some kind of mocking way or something.”  
“Yeah” said Ray. “That one was probably meant as an insult.”  
Ray wanted to stay longer, but Boron started elaborating on dwarves and their crafts to the point of boring Ray. He made up an excuse to get out of there before Boron got to the part, where he wanted to praise dwarves for their influence in starting the aircraft and trying to compare their planes to those from this world.

“Did you even try this time?” asked Ash.  
“I told you I’m bad at this” replied Martin.  
Ray walked into his room and saw Ash and Martin sitting by his table and playing chess. Looked like Martin just lost another game, but he looked more bored than disappointed. Not surprised by the outcome and not caring enough to feel bad about it.  
“Ray” Ash greeted him with a smile. “It’s so good you came, your friend isn’t very good at this game. He agreed to play, but he doesn’t even put any effort into it.”  
“He’s not trying because chess isn’t a girl he could hit on” said Ray.  
“Chess require too much planning” said Martin.  
“I think the issue might be in constant losing” said Ash to Martin. “That discourages you. Maybe you could try playing with Ray.”  
“I’m not afraid of losing!” shouted Martin. “But what’s the point of trying to fight someone you have no chance in defeating?”  
“You can-”  
“Since you are here” said Martin interrupting Ray. “Ash doesn’t need my company anymore.” Martin walked straight to the door passing next to Ray like a wind and left.  
“What happened to him?” asked Ash.  
“He’s probably having a mood swings.”


	7. Chapter 7

It was Monday’s lunch break. Ash took her portion of the food and was about to join her friends when suddenly someone stood on her way.  
“Pull yourself together Ash” said man passing by. “You are not representing mages properly.”  
“At least I don’t hide myself behind tons of books and research!” shouted Ash to a mage who was walking away.  
“Good comeback” said Martin. “Yes, show them who’s the one being right.”  
“I don’t know if I’m right though” said Ash staring blankly at her plate.  
She was wearing human clothes for the third day in a row. Clothes were for her size but she couldn’t get rid of tightening feeling on her entire body. But she started to get used to them and not think of it as something she shouldn’t have. She also stopped worrying about everyone looking at her with disrespect, which Ray and Dorian assured her was just her imagination. Now the only struggle that remained for her was to be accepted by mages again. She felt the emotions from her first year at academy returning and haunting her again.  
“I should try joining mages today” said Ash as she looked at their table. Orion and twenty other mages were sitting in the circle just like always. She didn’t know where the remaining mages were at this moment. Ash had her legs to the side, ready to stand up and walk there but she kept on hesitating and remained in this half sitting position.  
“Do you want me to go with you?” asked Dorian.  
“No, it will just make it more difficult. I should do it on my own.”  
“Hey, Dorian!” someone shouted from the other end of the canteen. It was a human man, standing together with his group being a mix up of most of the races. “We got permission to use gym. Do you want to play volleyball with us?”  
“Excuse me” Dorian said to his friends as he joined the new group and walked away.  
“Everyone wants to hang out with him” said Martin.   
It started like that few days ago. No matter when they were leaving or coming in to the dormitory, there was always someone approaching them asking Dorian if he wants to do something with them. He even already got attention of girls as yesterday a group of elvish girls asked, if he wants to go shopping with them and show them human culture. He was friends with people of every race and all girls were talking about him. But even Dorian wasn’t sure what caused him to become so popular.  
“How do centaurs even play volleyball?” Martin thought out loud as he saw there was one centaur in the group Dorian joined.  
Ash finally gathered enough guts to move and walk up to mage’s table.  
“They cannot hate her for those small changes forever, right?” asked Martin. Both him and Ray observed girl as she takes attention of everyone around the table and speaks to them.  
Martin glanced to the side for a while ,where one particular girl caught his attention. Her cleavage was almost popping out from her dress, but what was catching Martin’s attention more were her long legs in a black thigh highs. It took him some time to realise it was actually Lily. She was talking with two other girls, possibly regular humans.  
“I have to go” said Martin as he jumped off his seat. He didn’t get a chance to meet Lily since their date in amusement park, but ever since he kept on having perverted dreams each night. He needed to ask if this can be stopped somehow.  
Ray sighted. I guess everyone suddenly has better things to do, he thought. He put away his plate as he was thinking of leaving and going back to his room to study. But suddenly a girl from his class took a seat on the other side of the table. It was Melissa, he talked with her before. He already knew what she came for.  
“How’s it going?” she asked.  
“Great” replied Ray.  
“Do you have a moment?”  
“Let’s just get somewhere private and get this over with” replied Ray and they both left the canteen.

“Hi” said Lily as she waved to Martin. Somehow she noticed he was coming, even though she was turned into another direction for the most part.  
She exchanged some final words with her friends before leaving them and running up to Martin and kissing him in the cheek. He took a few steps back as his heart started beating faster. He wasn’t sure if it was because of just seeing the girl or it was some kind of effect succubus had on people.  
“It’s great to see you” said Martin. “We need to talk.”  
“Do you like me when I’m more succubus-like?” she asked in playful tone while hiding her hands behind the back and pushing her chest towards.  
“Yes- I mean” Martin forced himself to look in another direction. “I feel kind of weird.”  
“Did you like the dream I gave you?”  
“That’s what I wanted to talk about” said Martin. “Whatever you are doing to my dreams just stop.”  
“So you don’t like it?” she said quietly with her head down.  
“I do. Well, I did. But it’s too much. Man cannot have lewd dreams all the time.”  
“Should I make them less frequent?”  
“Make them disappear completely!” Martin didn’t realise he raised his voice. Girl moved her face away as if she got slapped.  
“I thought that’s what you wanted. I just tried to be a good succubus to you.”  
Seeing Lily’s saddened face made Martin felt guilty for what he said. He kept on staring at her body, it was a view hard to look away from. “I’m sorry” he said. “Of course you are a great succubus. You are the best one I could ever have.” He hugged her and looked her in the eyes. “You are my beautiful little succubus.”  
Lily moved her body deeper into Martin’s grasp and rested her head on his chest. He felt a chills running through his body. What did she do now?- thought Martin. “What about we go to cinema tonight?” he asked.  
“Yes.”  
She kept her head on his chest and had her eyes closed. She could probably fall asleep standing like that. Martin quickly stepped away.  
“Dreams will disappear, I promise.” she said while smiling before turning around and walking away. Martin looked at girl’s short skirt waving back and forth and a little area of her revealed legs between the skirt and the thigh highs. This is too good to give up on, thought Martin.

When Martin went with Lily to see a movie, he couldn’t stop his heart from beating fast. Since the morning he couldn’t get rid of this feeling whenever he met with the succubus. It was getting annoying, but when he looked at this beautiful girl he thought it’s not that big of a price for dating her. Back when he first met her, she looked just like a cute innocent girl. But now that she showed her succubus nature, she was giving out a completely different vibe. And whatever it was about her, it was making his entire body go crazy and he couldn’t even rest with her being around.   
Martin took her to a crappy love comedy. He hated those kind of movies, but other movie choices weren’t much better and he didn’t want to go to the same horror movie twice. He ignored the movie and for the most part he was thinking of Lily and how to deal with her succubus nature. It had its benefits, but there were some issues that maybe could be fixed or toned down. He was glad they didn’t go to a movie he would actually want to see, as he wouldn’t be able to focus on movie, where Lily’s erotic body was affecting him even when he didn’t look at her. Is she teasing me like this on purpose or is it just part of her nature?- thought Martin.  
Movie lasted only one and half hour but for Martin it felt like whole day. he felt like he was done with going to the cinema for a long time. Once they left, Martin still had a dinner for them in plans. He wanted to take her to the restaurant, thinking it was the only appropriate choice, but Lily insisted on them eating at fast food restaurant instead. Martin didn’t want to argue about that and accepted her wish.  
Martin thought he got used to her appeal and succubus effect on him, he was almost feeling comfortable at last. But as Lily started eating, Martin caught himself staring at girl’s lips, her naturally deep red lips moving as she was eating a cheeseburger. A piece of food dropped on her thigh, as if it was on purpose to draw his attention to her legs. Martin’s only conclusion was that with succubus it’s never sure whether something is an accident, or one of their tricks to get man’s attention.  
“Is it just me or it’s really hot here?” asked Martin, who unbuttoned his shirt as he found it hard to breathe.   
“Maybe it’s because of me” she said in a playful tone.  
But do you have to be so direct about it, Martin wished to say.  
Being around Lily was like having all of the senses strengthened but just focusing on one thing. Her singing voice and giggling was echoing is his ears like a melody, whenever she was showing her tongue or her skirt was lifted just a bit higher when walking, he was noticing it all. When he was touching her, feeling of her soft skin was almost addicting like touching fresh bed sheet. It all was satisfying, yet annoying.  
Throughout the entire evening Martin had conflicting thoughts about Lily. It was hard to focus or stay calm because of Lily’s constant teasing, which sometimes didn’t even involve her doing anything. Her presence on its own was enough to make Martin’s heart race to his throat and spark inappropriate thoughts in his head. On the other hand, he was on a date with a beautiful girl that was hard to resist and he couldn’t help but feel lucky.  
“Uhhmm” Martin tried to start once their date came to an end and they returned to the campus.. “Can I ask something about succubuses?.. I have that strange feeling when I’m near you, but I didn’t have it back when we first met.”  
“Maybe it’s love” she said. Then she started giggling. “No, I’m joking. It’s because back then I had clothes that were covering most of my body. That was stopping succubus aura from affecting anyone. Otherwise every guy in the party would kept on staring at me with their lustful eyes.”  
“But today when we were in public it wasn’t a problem?” asked Martin. “Other guys weren’t looking at you that much.”  
“No, because I’m with you. I can make it that my succubus appeal affects only one person. If succubus couldn’t do that, she couldn’t seduce one man without gathering dozens of others around her.”  
“So you are just using it all on me?” said Martin trying to stay calm.  
“Doesn’t it make you feel good?” she asked. “Having a special treatment.”  
“Yes.” And uncomfortable, he added in his head. “But could you tone down it a bit? It’s hard to focus on anything with that thing constantly affecting me.”  
“If I tone it down on you, others might start feeling affected too. Do you want other guys to look at your girlfriend with eyes full of desire?”  
“I thought living with succubus is easier” said Martin.  
“Everyone says it’s a wonderful experience. At least that’s what they were telling me.”  
“Oh, right” said Martin as he realised something that should be obvious from the start. “You were probably seducing many men back in your world.”  
Lily was waving her hands nervously and let out a high pitched voice, but Martin only noticed her bouncing breasts. “Don’t get me wrong” she said. “It was just my job. No! That just made it sound worse. Those were just my clients- No! I meant I didn’t enjoy it. Actually I did. But it was different. No! That sounds wrong too…” She kept on trying to choose the right words but all that Martin was thinking of was her bouncing breasts and Lily’s past that was pretty much a prostitution. “Listen Martin. I’m not proud of who I was. And despite I used my succubus power to seduce many men, it’s different with you. You are special to me. That’s why I didn’t want you to find out who I really am. Because I didn’t want you to hate me. But believe me, I feel something entirely different to you.”  
“I don’t hate you” said Martin as she hugged Lily. But before girl managed to calm down in his grasp and feel comfortable again, Martin moved back. “But I’m sorry. I need to think about it. It’s all quite confusing.”  
Martin walked away, Lily didn’t try to stop him and returned to dormitory with her head low.

“Ah, what have I done!” screamed Martin as soon as he opened the door to his room. He calmed himself down after seeing Ash was inside. She was playing chess with Ray.  
“What’s the matter?” asked Ash.  
“Forget it, I’m not gonna bother you with this.” Martin headed straight to bed and disappeared under the quilt.  
“You listened to my problems and tried to help me Martin” said Ash. “So it’s only fair if I listen to your struggles as well.”  
“Don’t agree” said Ray. “It’s probably something silly and stupid.”  
“Some problems might look silly, but for that one person it might be an important issue” said Ash. “I used to have a fear of opening any chest or drawer after one mage made one of my chests alive as a prank. When I tried to open it, it’s giant tongue devoured me and I was stuck in a dark box for hours until they found me. Thankfully I always had Orion who helped me deal with all my fears I encountered in academy.”  
“That’s not a silly problem” said Ray. “That sounds like a serious trauma. And this prank sounds more like an attempt of murder.”  
“Yes, this was far beyond an innocent joke and the one responsible for that didn’t receive a proper punishment.” Ash was holding on to one chess piece tighter and tighter. Ray thought she will break it with her fingers. “If I was an archmage I would expel him from the academy and prohibit using magic for the rest of his life. I don’t like using violence, but this person deserves to be pierced by hundreds of magic swords” Ash suddenly calmed down as she turned around to look at Martin hiding in his bed. “But the fear of chests itself was a silly one. I had to keep all my items in the open and I even took out all the clothes from the wardrobe.”  
“It was still a bad example” said Ray.  
Martin wrapped himself out of the quilt and looked at Ash. “Your life was tough from the start. All my problems sound silly compared to yours.”  
“Should I leave so you can talk about it with Ray in private?”  
“No!” Ray replied.  
“I just said something horrible to my girlfriend because I judged her based on who she is. Was it that bad if I said I need to think about it?”  
“I’m not good with relationships” said Ash. “If it was a vampire I assume it was inappropriate. We aren’t barbarians anymore and we know how to deal with their sickness, they can be troublesome but mages can cure them.. But if it’s a succubus then you did the right thing Martin. You should stay away from those as far away as possible. I can use protective spell on both of you if you want to feel more safe.”  
“I think even Martin isn’t so stupid to fall for succubus” said Ray. “What about that dealing with vampire sickness?”  
“Oh that. The cure makes-”  
“Forget about vampires” said Martin. “And no, she’s neither vampire nor succubus. She’s just a bit unusual and it’s hard for me to accept her past.”  
“Checkmate” said Ash suddenly. “Thank you for the game. I should be going back to my room. But mentioning succubuses just reminded me of my annoying roommate. It’s not about anything she does. It’s just her pure presence that annoys me.”  
“What’s so annoying about her?” asked Martin.  
“She tries to play a wallflower, cute and innocent. She always laughs that guys love it. But when she’s in room with only three of us she doesn’t have problem hiding her obsession with boys. The worst is when she keeps asking about me and Orion. How many times do I need to say we are just friends for her to stop come up with weird ideas about us.”  
“I think I know how you feel” said Ray while looking at Martin.  
“I think she might be a succubus” said Ash. “But she doesn’t show any signs of being one. Oh no” Ash covered her face with hands. “Don’t tell me I’m sharing one room with such a filthy creature.”  
“Did you have any bad experience with a succubus in the past?” asked Martin.  
“Personally no” replied Ash. “But I saw how my classmate isolates himself from others and his scores drop because he let a succubus to poison his life. He eventually had to leave the academy.”  
“You were talking as if it was more personal” said Martin.  
“I knew that boy. It saddened me to see him face such a miserable end” said Ash while crossing her arms. She stood up and walked to the exit in haste. “I hope she’s not home now.”  
“Who would have thought Ash might get annoyed so easily” said Ray after girl left their room. “Maybe it’s because of the stress she experiences recently.”  
Martin looked at Ray without saying a word. Ray tried to ignore it as he opened his laptop and was getting ready to his work. But the eyes of his friend still locked on him were disturbing him too much.  
“What?” Ray finally asked.  
“It is a succubus Ray. My girlfriend is a succubus. I knew what I was getting myself into but I agreed anyway. I agreed to date succubus. Am I stupid?”  
“Yes” replied Ray immediately. “But for other reasons than your poor choice of girlfriends.”  
“It’s was great, until I realised how her past looked like. It’s hard to accept she was seducing one man after another, teasing them, sending dreams.”  
“That’s why Ash warned us about succubuses” said Ray.  
“Just don’t mention it to her” said Martin.   
“You heard how people who encountered succubus ended like” said Ray. “Then why are you continuing this?”  
“She probably just exaggerates.” Martin suddenly got up from his bed. From looking dead just a second ago. Now he was standing up full of energy. “I will prove her wrong” declared Martin. “I will prove that even succubus can be good and have a real relationship.”  
“Mhmm” said Ray while he started typing.

The next morning Martin and Dorian were concerned about Ray as he was gone when they were about to go for the lectures.  
“He’s so eager to study he went ahead of us” said Martin, but of course he didn’t believe it and they both knew there’s something wrong going on.  
But when they arrived to university, Ray was already there, acting like usual. He only looked a bit more tired, but it was probably he woke up so early today.  
“Where have you been?” asked Dorian.  
“I went to meet someone before lectures” replied Ray.  
Martin looked at him when he was giving them reply and he found it difficult to stop himself from laughing. He managed to stay quiet but a grin appeared on his face. He’s such a bad liar he’s not even trying to come up with an excuse, thought Martin.  
None of them bothered to try and question Ray more about it, they accepted he didn’t want to talk about it. But during lectures Martin got concerned about something else. Ray was wearing a sweater. Usually he was wearing one of his white buttoned shirts, but for the past few days he was wearing only this sweater. In the lecture rooms it was particularly hot, Ray was sweating yet he was refusing to even unzip it.  
During one of the short breaks between lectures they went with Ray to the main hall of the lecture building, as it was where in one room first year students could start applying to student council. For now they were only collecting applicants’ data. Short chats that would let the council decide who should be let in, were meant to be arranged at a later time.   
“Looks like there aren’t many interested this year” said Ray. “But looks like even one mage decided to apply, that might be interesting.”  
“Don’t tell me you want to be in student council” laughed a female voice from the side. It was an elvish girl with a light green skin. She looked more like a teacher than a student because of her formal human uniform, giving her a secretary look. She adjusted her glasses. “You look like a weakling who thinks only about studying. You are no fit for making decisions. Stay in the crowd and let the true leaders represent students.”  
Martin found a twisted pleasure from seeing Ray being mocked like this and not having any comeback for elf’s insult.  
Ray stayed calm and he raised his chin. “If there’s something I’m good at, it’s being a leader. And soon you will find out about it.“  
“Your bold words don’t make impression on me” elf sighted. “I won’t believe until I see it.” she walked away tapping the floor with her high heel shoes.  
“It’s a typical elf prick if I ever saw one” said Martin. “She acts like a mage.”  
“I will show her”said Ray as he clenched his fists. “And I will tear that cheeky smile from her face.”  
“Woah woah woah.” cheered Martin. “Ray got into his fighting spirit. That’s going to be fun.”  
They were about to walk away, the break was ending and they didn’t want to get late for their next classes. But as they were heading to the exit they saw Ash and Orion walking into the building.  
“I remember when you were a member of student council” said Ash. “People were calling you a tyrant but I liked the way you were back then. Thinking everything ahead. Always making the right judgement, even when your methods were questionable”  
“Why are we talking in their language?” asked Orion.  
“If we talk in our language around others, it just might alienate us. People will be even more scared to get near us.”  
“Are you going to join student council as well?” asked Ray once they got close enough. Ash kept on looking at Orion and didn’t even notice her friends standing nearby.  
“No” replied Ash. “But…” Ash stopped as she noticed Orion suddenly turning away and leaving. “Orion wait!” she called him but he wasn’t reacting.  
“You started getting along again?” asked Dorian. Today she was wearing her mage uniform. Dorian considered it could also be a reason why he didn’t mind talking with her.  
“Yes. We talked everything through this morning. He still probably doesn’t approve of my actions, but at least he understood I’m still the same old Ash he knew for years. I tried to encourage him to apply to this student council. Maybe it would have worked, but he wants to avoid you so he left.”  
“What a fool” said Martin. “He cannot even act mature. What kind of lame imitation of a mage is he.”  
“At least that confirms he still acts on emotions sometimes” said Dorian. “Now he actually starts looking like a human.”


	8. Chapter 8

During lunch break Martin suddenly disappeared somewhere using an excuse he isn’t hungry. Dorian and Ray, not surprised by his behaviour went to the canteen without him. But as soon as they came in, Dorian got invited by his orc friend to a table with lots of elf girls and one nymph. Ray said he doesn’t mind an let his friend join them. Since Ash was now sitting by the table with mages, Ray took a seat alone in their usual spot, now feeling empty without other members of the group. He looked at the plate with his food, but he didn’t feel hungry. Ray sighted as he laid his face on the table.  
“Are you going to eat it or can I take your portion?” asked Luna who suddenly appeared in front of the table.  
Ray got up and took a fork to sign that he’s going to eat. “I was just thinking about past few days. I actually believed it when on our first meeting he said together we will have an adventure here. But now everyone seems to go their own way. Even Ash is spending time with mages now.”  
“Do you feel Martin let you down by choosing a succubus over friendship with you?” asked Luna as she took a seat right next to him.  
“No, it’s just that- Wait, you knew his girlfriend was a succubus?”  
“Of course” said Luna while patting her head. “My girls have good sense for that. Thanks to their instinct I can sense this kind of thing.”  
“And you didn’t warn him despite saying how dangerous succubuses are?”  
“It’s funny to see him like that.” Luna giggled. “He really is marti.”  
“What?” Ray looked at her wondering what she meant but she avoided answering by starting eating.  
As she leaned her head over the plate Ray looked at her eyes. When she was sitting like that, glasses were slightly sliding down her nose. Under the angle he looked at her eyes, with nothing blocking the way to look directly into her deadly irises. Yet, Ray was still alive. Maybe she has to look directly at me, thought Ray. Now she was looking down at her food so he barely saw her bright hazel eyes. Her eyelashes were naturally long, there was no way she used any kind of makeup to make them longer on her own. It would just make people pay more attention to the eyes which she didn’t want anyone to look at. It was probably just another way gorgons were meant to lure people into looking into their eyes. Why are you staring, Ray scolded himself for looking at a thing, that could easily kill him any second. It only took Luna to raise her sight and look at him. Ray felt like standing on the edge of the cliff and looking down in the endless abyss. Bright abyss hidden behind the black frames of her glasses. Was she wearing regular glasses instead of shades for her own comfort or there was another reason to it? And if there was, why she decided to change it so suddenly? There were too many questions Ray wanted to be answered, but he couldn’t ask directly.  
“Italian cuisine” Luna said suddenly.  
She raised her head and Ray instinctively turned his sight away looking randomly at a wall in the canteen.   
“What about it?” asked Ray with shaking voice while unnaturally avoiding eye contact with the gorgon.  
“That’s the next one I’d like to try” explained Luna. “But, I guess before I try actual italian food I’d like to have a taste of pizza everyone is talking about.”  
Ray carefully glanced to the side, after realising it is safe to look at Luna again he returned his head to the original position. “Why are you telling this to me and not Martin?”  
“Martin doesn’t have time recently. At least that’s what he’s saying.”  
“You can come to my room and we could order a pizza today” said Ray without even thinking about it.  
“Really? You would do that” she asked.  
“Of course, I have nothing better to do anyway.”  
“Thank you. After losing Martin I don’t have anyone to try new food with. My other friends are really picky about food. Their taste is boring and it’s a challenge to make them try something new.”  
“It’s not a problem” replied Ray.  
When Luna leaned over to continue eating he continued glancing at her eyes hoping she won’t notice.

Martin searched the entire campus looking for Lily. He needed to talk with her. The longer he stayed away from her after what he said last time, the worse their relation would become. He run in circles checking every corner of the campus until he finally stumbles upon her as she was sitting by the fountain. She was wearing her black sweater covering her entire body preventing her succubus aura from affecting anyone.   
“Hi” said Martin as he carefully approached Lily. She kept her head down and didn’t react to Martin’s sudden appearance. Martin took a seat next to her. “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday.”  
Despite it being difficult to say, Martin felt quite calm. Everything felt easier without him being affected by her succubus powers.  
“You were right” she said. “Someone with such past shouldn’t be allowed to have a normal relationship.”  
Martin grabbed her hand resting on the fountain. She finally raised her head to look at Martin.  
“I just panicked back then. I said I needed to think about it and I did. Your past isn’t a problem.”  
She pulled her hand out of Martin’s grasp. “You’re just saying that because you didn’t hear details. I did things that you wouldn’t find in the weirdest porn video you’ve ever seen. You say you don’t mind it, but I can see how disgusted you must feel, knowing that your girlfriend is just a whore with magical powers.”  
“Well…” Martin wasn’t ready to deal with this issue in such a straightforward way. But looked like for this airhead girl, nice words weren’t enough.  
“I wouldn’t waste whole afternoon flipping whole campus upside down just to find you if I didn’t care.”

Martin hugged her and she wasn’t resisting him anymore. He felt like he succeeded, and a tail spreading out from beneath her and waving like happy dog’s tail made him just confirm that.  
“Are you disappointed you can’t see my body over those clothes?” she asked.  
Martin freed himself from Lily’s hug to slid himself away from her.  
“What are you talking about?” asked Martin.  
“I thought you could come here because you still felt horny after being under my influence last night.”  
No wonder her cover as a normal human didn’t work, thought Martin. She likes to keep her cards in the open. Unless she’s just too naive to notice that she shows her cards to everyone.  
“No, nothing like that lead me here” said Martin, though now he wasn’t sure himself. He tried to think of what reason actually brought him here. Was it really his conscious decision?  
Lily moved closer to Martin to hug him again. “I’ll prove to you, you are special to me” she said.  
Martin was too happy to think what she meant by those words. But then, as they were sitting hugging each other Martin was looking around. He saw other students passing by. So many guys smarter and stronger than him, plenty of majestic elfs, Martin wondered why she decided to choose him over anyone else. As a succubus she had a free choice to choose anyone as her partner or just a victim. What was it that made her consider him special? For now he had to live with his doubts hoping to find out what are Lily’s real motives later.

Luna got to choose what pizza they should order while they waited in Ray’s dorm room. She was taking her time while considering every choice way too much and way too seriously.  
“What if Martin shows up?” asked Luna.  
“Are you avoiding him?” asked Ray.  
“It’s more like he avoids me. Last time we met he left angry.”  
That sounds like Martin, thought Ray. But there was still something weird about it. As they waited, Luna was sitting on Martin’s bed while Ray was sitting by the table, tapping his finger on the desk and staring at the screen of his laptop while trying to think of a way to entertain Luna.  
“Would you like to learn how to play chess?” he asked as he looked at the chessboard with the pieces still on it, from his last game with Ash  
“I’m not good with this kind of games.” Luna walked up with her hands behind the back and started looking at Ray’s laptop carefully examining it. “Martin said you keep on working on something in secret.”  
“It’s not really a secret” replied Ray. “I just didn’t tell him because he didn’t ask. And he would probably laugh at it anyway. I’m writing about my experience with the races from World Beta. I’m trying to gather as many valuable information as possible and hopefully be one of the first people to publish a book about it.”  
“Can I take a look? Maybe I could help.”  
“No! I cannot let you see that” said Ray as he closed his laptop and covered it with his arms. “So far it’s just bunch of scribbles anyway.”  
“You don’t want a help of someone who lived in the world you are trying to describe?” Luna leaned closer over the desk. Her face was close to Ray, and he got scared of Luna’s sight reaching his eyes through glasses that were slowly sliding down her nose.  
“If I need help, I will ask for it” replied Ray with shaking voice.  
“I wonder what you have written about gorgons” she said while adjusting her glasses. “Can I at least see that part?”  
“No!”  
“Oooh, a secret” said LUna with a smirking face. “What could you write about me.”  
“There’s nothing about you” replied Ray. “It’s just about gorgons in general. But most of is just nonsense that shouldn’t be seen by anyone.”  
Luna giggled and her hair turned wild moving under her turban. “You know what they say, you never should test gorgon’s patience.”  
Ray covered his laptop more, now he was almost hugging it to his chest. “I’d rather die than let someone see it.”  
Luna put her hands on temples of her glasses as if she was about to take them off.  
“Don’t mess with me like that!” said Ray, almost yelling at Luna.  
“Better turn away your head” she said as she moved her glasses slightly up.   
But Ray stayed still looking at Luna waiting for what she will do next. It turned into a staring contest with them carefully watching each other. This girl was so crazy, that Ray couldn’t tell if she could really just turn him into stone like this without bothering about consequences. Eventually Luna put down her glasses back on her ears. Ray sighed from relief, being glad he made a good call about Luna’s intentions. She turned away as she was about to return to Martin’s bed. Before she sat down she looked back at Ray with a playful smile from behind her shoulder. Ray tried to calm down, but it was hard when knowing she was having fun from provoking him like this. How did Martin manage to survive with this beast?  
As Luna was sitting, she took off her turban. Ray was still thinking too much about what just happened to pay any attention to the snakes that were still making him feel uncomfortable. Ray thought only how once Luna leaves, he will open his laptop and deletes huge chunks of text he wrote to make sure no one ever sees his silly thoughts.  
Soon after Ray got a phone call and he went to the dormitory entrance to take the pizza that just arrived. They ordered the largest one but Ray wondered if it was enough for Luna with her endless stomach and a pack of snakes who will want to taste new food as well. Ray hoped to at least eat a few slices of pizza before the rest gets swallowed by Luna. She let him take few slices first before leaning over to let her snakes get closer to the pizza biting it from all directions. As soon as they started eating, Martin walked into the room, happily humming a song. He quickly stopped upon sight of Luna’s snakes slithering on the pizza.  
“Do you want some pizza Martin?” asked Luna while moving her head away from the food.  
“No, thanks” replied Martin as he tried to stop himself from throwing out.  
“Why were you so happy?” asked Luna. “Is it because of your girlfriend?”  
“Well, yes actually. I guess there was nothing to worry about. Now everything will be great.”  
“Maybe you’d prefer her as a statue” suggested Luna. “Then you would be sure she never leaves you.”  
“How can you joke so much about power that can kill so easily?” asked Martin.  
“Don’t you have jokes like that in your world? You call it dark humour I believe.”  
“Now I’m curious, what kind of jokes do you have in your world?” asked Ray.  
“Our comedy might be hard for you to find funny. Oh, I know the good one- How do you feed a succubus?” said Luna. “With your di-”  
“Okay, we don’t wanna know more” shouted Martin. “Your sense of humour is just as twisted as ours. If not more. “  
Martin got to his desk and started checking facebook and browsing memes on his laptop, not bothering Ray and Luna who were busy eating.  
The room felt uncomfortably quiet with only sounds of chewing, typing on keyboard and occasional hissing. Luna came here with Ray, yet they barely talked with each other. Martin wondered if it was like that since the moment she came, or was it because of him being in the room.  
“I know I kept saying I’m busy” started Martin to break the silence. “But we can go try new food soon if you want.”  
“I think I found a fine replacement for you though” replied Luna. “Ray is a way better company than you.”  
“Am I?” asked Ray.  
“That was delicious” suddenly said Luna as she stood up after finishing the meal. “No wonder everyone is talking about it. But we should go to an italian restaurant to try more of their cuisine soon.”  
“I guess we could...” replied Ray, uncertain of Luna’s intentions.  
“Aren’t you asking me first?” asked Martin, but his words were left unnoticed.  
“Wonderful” said Luna as she was putting on her headkerchief. “Bye Ray.”  
“Did I turn into a ghost to you or what?” asked Martin, but Luna already left the room.  
“She’s crazy and scary” said Ray “But also fun when she doesn’t try to annoy anyone.”   
Martin suddenly started typing fast and loud before rapidly jumping off his seat. “What a fool” said Martin before running out of the room. He run down the hallway trying to catch up with gorgon.  
“Wait!” Martin shouted while pointing his finger at Luna who was walking downstairs. “What is your problem? Are you jealous or what?”  
“Jealous about the fact a succubus wrapped you around her tail? That rather brings a feeling of pity and a loud laugh.”  
“Then why do you act so strange recently?” asked Martin, still with a raised tone.  
“I’m not the one shouting at a girl on the staircase.” Luna turned around and continued walking down to the exit.  
Martin leaned over the handrail to look at her when she was already on lower floor. His frustration was raising, but he couldn’t think of a way to stop Luna from ignoring him. He run down until he was back to her line of sight when she was turning around to walk to the lower floor.  
“Do you want french food!? I can’t take you to Paris but come back tomorrow and I’ll make you the best ratatouille you’ll ever get.”  
Luna left without saying a word. Martin tried to take a glimpse of her face from above to find the answer in her expression. She could be smiling but he wasn’t sure and it wasn’t enough for an answer. Soon she disappeared behind the corner, Martin stomped his foot and looked at the empty staircase before returning to his room.  
On his way, an elf suddenly jumped out of the toilet, waving his hand near his nose to avoid a terrible smell. “Save yourself and stay out of this place” said elf to Martin. “Orc’s farts are the worst.”  
Shortly after another two people run out of toilet in panic. Martin quickly passed by, glad that he didn’t get to breathe in this smell. When he continued walking down the hallway he noticed Ray closing the door to their room. They passed each other. “I’m leaving” said Ray.  
Martin didn’t get a chance to ask him about anything, Ray was either in a big hurry, or he simply tried to avoid being flooded with Martin’s questions. Martin pretended to walk back to his room until his friend disappeared behind the corner. Ray looked behind, maybe it was because he heard noises coming from people who just walked unaware into the stinking toilet, or maybe he wanted to check if he isn’t followed. This is just to interesting to ignore, thought Martin as he run back to the staircase to follow Ray. Let’s find out who are you meeting in secret.  
It was much harder to follow Ray than Orion. Ray stayed cautious, constantly looking around and behind as if he was afraid of being followed or seen by someone he knows. Just what are you so ashamed of, wondered Martin hiding behind the dormitory building and looking for a next cover he could run to. Ray left the campus area giving Martin a challenge of trying to follow him on a street with no covers he could use. There were only few people walking down this street making it impossible for Martin to blend into a crowd. He had to wait in a safe place and chase after Ray later, hoping not to lose sight of him in the meantime. It became easier once Martin realised Ray was heading towards the nearby park by the lake. Despite keeping way too long distance between them to the point Martin could barely see Ray as a small figure in the distance, Martin managed to catch up to his friend in park where it was much easier to find a cover and watch him from a closer distance. The park was very empty and quiet. It was a cold afternoon close to the end of the Fall, the only people in the park were there just to take a dog for a walk. Martin worried one of the dogs my reveal his cover when hiding behind the tree and following Ray, who was still keeping an eye on his back.  
Ray suddenly strayed off the main path and walked in between the trees. There was a girl waiting there. Martin recognized his human looking classmate. He knew her name was Melissa and that she was coming from World Beta but they didn’t talk much for Martin to know more about her. Martin carefully peeked from behind the tree. They were talking but Martin couldn’t hear them. After a moment Ray unbuttoned top of his shirt and revealed his neck. Girl slowly walked up to him and rested her hands on his shoulders. She opened her mouth as she was slowly getting closer to his neck. Martin noticed her huge fangs as she deepened them into Ray’s neck. There was no doubt about it, Melissa was a vampire. She was taking her time to drink Ray’s blood. Just how much was she actually taking? Martin’s legs were trying to move on his own to jump out of the cover and go help his friend. But Ray didn’t seem to mind, he came here knowing what will happen to him and he agreed willingly. After she finished, Melissa slowly took off her teeth from him, carefully not to hurt him too much. Ray seemed to lose balance, his body was waving left and right and he was about to collapse soon. Melissa grabbed him by the arms and helped him sit on the ground by the tree.  
“Thank you Ray” she said. Martin managed to hear at least that much.  
“I’m glad I could help” replied Ray. Or maybe Martin just imagined him saying it. But that sounded like something he definitely could say.  
Martin rubbed his hands. Now I have a comeback when he decides to make fun of Lily, thought Martin. He would never suspect his friend of acting so foolish, yet now he was here, weakened because of the blood loss, resting by the tree because of his stupidity. Ray closed his eyes and Melissa was busy taking care of her blood donator, Martin thought it’s a good chance to sneak out of the area before they realise he was here.


	9. Chapter 9

After classes ended, Dorian hoped to have some time just for himself while taking a rest. But his peaceful loneliness couldn’t last long and soon he was surrounded by a group of girls flooding him with questions.  
Ivvis, one of the Dorian’s nymph classmate, grabbed him by the arm. “Could you beat an orc in a fistfight?” she asked.  
“Yes” replied Dorian. Ivvis and two elvish girls standing nearby gasped from amazement.  
“I wish humans in our world were like you” said Ivvis. “If you came there you would become a hero or even a legend.”  
“No thanks” replied Dorian as he looked around trying to find an excuse to get out of this company.  
“Dorian!” shouted Grok who was passing by. “Do you want to go to McDonalds with us?”  
“I’m sorry ladies” said Dorian as he gently pushed the nymph away from himself. “But friends are calling me.”  
Finally free, thought Dorian as he gave a sigh of relief. Almost everyone’s attention at university was focused on Dorian. He didn’t do anything to earn it, yet in just a few days he was known by everyone. He felt like back in highschool, and despite attempting not to stand out, everyone started surrounding him, as if it was some kind of curse he couldn’t escape.  
He left the campus area together with Grok and his two other friends, one of them was an orcish girl, he would have never realised her gender if they didn’t mention it. There was no significant difference between them and the male ones, at least not on the first glance.  
Dorian lost fun in meeting with everyone in the campus as fast as he started enjoying it during his first days. At least Grok and Chokar stayed as a fun company and didn’t turn boring after a while.

When Dorian returned to the campus area through the entrance gate, he saw a group of nymphs walking in his direction. He knew that as soon as they spot him, they will start clinging to him wanting to have a chat and ask him about something. But Dorian was already tired of dealing with those creatures for one day, he wished to just get back home and spend time alone or with his roommates. Dorian tried to sneak to the side, still keeping an eye on nymphs to make sure he is safe. But as he was crouching along the fence surrounding the campus he suddenly bumped on someone standing behind him. He only lost balance for a moment while the other person got knocked down. Dorian quickly forgot about nymphs and turned to the person he tripped over.  
“Are you alright?” he asked. As he turned around he saw it was Ash, moving her hands on the ground in panic as she was looking for something.  
“Got it” said Ash, she picked up a notebook lying next to her. Then she finally moved her sight up to notice it was Dorian standing in front of her.  
“What are you doing here?” asked Dorian while helping Ash to stand up.  
“Looking for magic currents” she explained. “If I’m right with my research, there should be another place nearby, aside from gym where it’s really intense, pumping with great mass of magic going through it.”  
“So that’s what kept you busy and why you didn’t talk with us recently” assumed Dorian.  
“I was trying to get back on good terms with other mages. But most of them didn’t know me before coming to this world. They only heard stories of me and know I’m a promising mage from an important family. Most of them are just jealous, so they are glad whenever they get a chance to put me in a bad light.”  
“Mage life must be tough” said Dorian. “Competing with others all the time.”  
Ash shook her head “It’s only because I’m part of the family that I am, what makes it so difficult and adds more pressure.” For some reason Ash didn’t seem worried about this. She said it like it was a fact and it was completely unrelated to her.   
“Are you fine about that?” asked Dorian.  
“I got used to this” Ash said as she smiled. “Pressure from the day I was born. But if I made it so far, there’s no way I’ll stop now.”  
Even if she had any struggles with keeping her reputation among other mages and following her career, she felt confident enough about what she was doing. But now that she was back to her mage duties, it looked like she didn’t have any time to spend with her friends from this world, stopping her from doing what she originally came here for.  
“Do you maybe want some help in looking for those magic current?” asked Dorian.  
“You don’t have enough understanding of magic to be of any help. But, I thought this time I should be the one helping you.”  
Dorian didn’t say anything, he tried to figure out what she could be referring to.  
“I… actually finished working… on something” girl began stuttering. “Just a small gift for all that you did to me.”  
“You didn’t have to” said Dorian. “But it’s still great of you to think about it. What is it?”  
“It’s… Maybe I’ll show you now. I left it in my room.”  
“So you are taking a break from your work” Dorian teased her.  
“No, it’s-! Okay, it’s a break, but that’s fine, I’ll just search for currents at night. Yes, night is a perfect time, it’s empty here so I can look for it in peace, when no one bothers me and I don’t risk bumping on anyone.”  
“I’m sorry about that” Dorian apologized again.  
Dorian followed Ash to girl’s dormitory. Inside, every girl they passed on the hallway recognized him and were asking if he’s free tonight or if he doesn’t mind helping in something later on. Dorian refused them all trying to stay as polite as possible. Ash stayed silent about all of this, actually she acted as if it was something natural. They walked on the third floor. When they were in front of the door to room 320, Ash started searching her pockets. Then she suddenly let out a short gasping sound as her body froze in space.  
“Did you lost your keys?” asked Dorian.  
“You cannot come in” she suddenly said. “I remembered I have a huge mess in my room. I can’t let you see it like that.”  
I bet she’s so organized she’s making huge deal over few books lying on bed, thought Dorian.  
“I don’t mind” he said. “Even the tidiest people sometimes make a mess.”  
Ash’s hand was shaking when she was putting key in the keyhole. “At least no one’s inside” muttered Ash as she was turning the key.  
When they walked in, it was just as Dorian expected, her part of the roomwas in bigger order than his. Everything perfectly placed on shelves and desk, like from a stock photo. The only thing that could be considered a mess was the bed she didn’t make and a book lying on the pillow. Ash run to the bed to put it into the order. Meanwhile Dorian looked around to see what Ash’s roommates are, based on their belonging lying on the plain sight.  
“At least my both roommates are human girls” said Ash, almost as if she knew what Dorian was thinking about. ”So we don’t have anything usual in the room.” She made a forced laugh.  
Dorian noticed a pile of books lying on one desk, it was the closest one to Ash’s bed so he assumed it belonged to her.   
“Do you like romance stories?” asked Dorian as he glanced over the few titles.  
Ash growled as she tensed her shoulders. “She left her stuff on my desk again.” Ash finished making her bed and she moved to the table like a wind. She was dashing back and forth as she was moving all the books from one desk to another, carefully putting them in three perfectly straight piles. “She annoys me so much.” Ash’s voice was breaking, she looked like she could start crying at any moment. “I would never read such books” she said as she calmed down a bit. “I prefer suspense stories. Yes, trying to discover the mystery is always so exciting.”  
“I thought as a mage you already have a lot of mysteries to discover in real life.”  
“But when I get tired of studying magic currents or learning how to perform a certain ritual, I like to forget about all of it and enjoy solving a fake mystery. Ash picked up a book that was lying on her pillow. “This is one of the books from my world.” She showed Dorian a dark book in hardcover. There were no illustrations on it, just a title and drawing of some symbol on the front and a short synopsis on the back. None of which Dorian could read as it was written in language from World Beta. “It’s a story of a small village where its citizens suddenly start to disappear one by one. At the beginning everyone suspects mage, who lives like a hermit in his hut, never talking with anyone in the village. But after few twists they really try to make it hard to guess who’s really responsible for that. In our books mages are usually portrayed as cryptic outcasts who stray away from people, or a noble authorities from the academy who come trying to solve the problem.”  
“I don’t think it’s something for me” said Dorian. I wouldn’t be able to read it anyway, he added in his head.  
“So far it looks like it’s a work of spell this mage had cast years ago that might be responsible for those events. But there must still be some kind of serial killer in the village. In this book I really can’t tell for sure who is responsible for that. So now I’m stuck, I’m afraid to read further before figuring it out first.”  
“Part of the beauty of stories is for them to surprise us” said Dorian.  
“But aren’t suspense stories all about trying to solve the mystery on its own?”  
“Some people like to do that. But most read those for the fun of reading and to be surprised by the plot twist at the end.”  
Ash put down the book on her desk, all the excitement flied out of her. “People in your world are more lazy than I expected. They think only of fun and don’t even try to look for the solutions on their own, expecting it to come to them on its own.”  
“I don’t think it’s a good analogy”said Dorian.  
“But- Anyway, about that gift.” Ash said. She opened one of her drawers. It didn’t took her long to look, she knew exactly where she put it. Dorian opened his palm and Ash handed him a small gem with rough edges. If it didn’t have less irregular shape, it could work as a dice.  
“I enchanted it” explained Ash while Dorian was giving it a closer look. “It should bring you luck.”  
“So lucky charms are a thing in your world” muttered Dorian.  
“It turned out flow of magic in the world has an effect on whether a certain place or a person has luck or a misfortune. Torans learned to use it to our advantage and bind the magic that brings luck to a certain objects and in process giving it to the one holding it. But if you ever visit our world, be careful. Because as binding luck is possible, it’s equally possible to do so with misfortune. And some people like to sell or hand you those ones. Never buy lucky charms from merchant you don’t trust and never accept any jewelry from people who hate you.”  
“Thank you for the advice” said Dorian as he kept on looking at the gem. “You made only one? What about Martin and Ray?”  
“I had resources to make only one” explained Ash quietly.  
So now it turned into choosing who’s the the better friend, thought Dorian. He returned the talisman to Ash. “Give them to all three of us when you will make more. For now I cannot accept this.”  
“You’re right, that was stupid” replied Ash quietly. She tossed the gem back to the drawer. “Anyway, I should get back to work.”  
Dorian would leave. But if he was found walking on his own, someone would immediately try to invite him somewhere. And today Dorian didn’t want anything more than just to spend rest of the day peacefully. Both Martin and Ray were busy, so the only not annoying friend left was Ash.  
“I don’t know much about magic. But can I just stand behind and watch?” asked Dorian.  
Ash happily nodded the head. “I’ll share as much knowledge about magic as I can. You will be my apprentice in a sense.” Ash clapped her hands. “I always wanted to have an apprentice, looking after a young soul that wants to learn arcane knowledge.”  
“Then I’ll be your apprentice” said Dorian as they left the room.

“Aren’t you going to canteen?” Ray asked Martin after they finished the last lecture.  
Martin was already in the middle of running in the distance. If Ray didn’t stop him with this question he would disappear without saying a word.  
“I can’t. I need to prepare ratatouille.”  
“What?”  
Martin was about to run away, but the urge to say about his worries to someone made him stop. He run back to Ray, but he kept on jumping from leg to leg, showing he really was in a great hurry.  
“I promised Luna I’ll make her a french food. Though I’m not sure if she will come. So I might end up wasting time making it only for myself. But if I won’t make it and she comes- I’m as good as dead. She’s messing with me. But there’s nothing I can do. I have to play along her game. So now I just have to make this dish and pray she will come. If you meet Luna, tell her I’m waiting for her.”  
“Suuure” said Ray as he still tried to process what was Martin’s babbling about, he said it all so quickly.  
Without wasting anymore time, Martin got back to his dorm room. Last night he bought all the necessary ingredients and now he went through the room like a hurricane, picking everything he needed and run to the kitchen. He was alone there, having whole kitchen to himself where he could cook in peace. But he didn’t stay calm, he was constantly checking the time. How much time did he have? When will Luna come? Will she even come at all?

Martin returned to his room with his dish ready. He served the dish on two plates, took a seat and waited. He put a lot of effort into making this dish and now someone had to do it. Martin prefered when he had a chance to share the food he made with others, especially when it was an usual meal he was making. Martin was tapping his fingers on the table as he stared at the door to the room.  
“What a fool!” Martin yelled at himself. He took out his phone and wrote a message to Luna saying ‘I’m waiting.’  
It was only about five seconds later when the door opened and Luna walked into the room while holding the phone and reading the message.  
“Did you get impatient?” asked Luna with a singing voice.  
“Food would get cold” replied Martin.  
Luna took off her turban and let her snakes free before taking a seat. This time Martin wasn’t scared of the snakes slithering on Luna’s head, annoyance was taking over. He couldn’t let Luna toy with him any more, he had to learn to deal with her before she gets completely out of control.  
“I got used to eating cold food” replied Luna. “Sometimes my mother was making dinner early before leaving to the academy. When I was coming home I had no choice but to eat what she made hours ago.  
“Don’t you have ovens or microwaves in your world?” asked Martin.  
“No, but I didn’t mind. It still tasted good.”  
“Now you don’t have to eat cold food anymore” replied Martin.  
“If I was a nobility, I would hire you as my personal chef” said Luna.  
“You didn’t even try it yet.” Martin looked at her plate she still didn’t touch.  
“This time I’ll let my snakes decide how well you did” she said as she leaned her head over the plate, letting her snakes slither on the plate, biting small chunks of food from all sides.  
This sight for sure made Martin not want to eat his portion. So much effort and I can’t even enjoy my own food, thought Martin as he tried to hide from Luna his ruined appetite.  
“My snakes approve your cooking skills” she said before taking a bite on her own.  
“Good, does it mean 10/10? Do I move to the next round?” Martin asked with an obvious tone of sarcasm.  
“Is it because french food is so good, or because you are so good at cooking?” asked Luna.  
“I don’t know. I never thought how good french food is.”  
“Yet you know how to cook it.”  
“This one looked interesting. I had to learn to cook a lot when I was young. And when I grew up I just kept on learning new dishes but I stopped caring if they are any good or if it’s for my taste. One high school friend liked ratatouille so I made it for her few times.”  
“That sounds like a tragic story” said Luna.  
“Not really. When I started high school parents kept on leaving a lot. That’s when I had to learn how to cook. That was the only way to survive after I overused my friends’ hospitality by eating at their homes and my pocket money was running short from buying all the fast foods. After I caused fire in the kitchen for the third time, father got tired of this and gave me a few advices. By that time parents stopped leaving house that often, but I already learned to cook by that time and I enjoyed it. When I had time I was even making dinners for all three of us.  
“They were leaving because of their work?” asked Luna. “Just like my mother had to go to the academy all the time.  
“No, I don’t know where they were going. They were weird” replied Martin. “They never told me where they are leaving. It was so weird, they could as well be a spies going on secret missions as far as I know.”  
“When I once was left alone with my father for one day and I said I’m hungry, he suggested me to cut off my hair and cook my girls… Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to interrupt your story.”  
“But that’s it” replied Martin. “All you need to know. Do you want to talk about your childhood now?”  
Luna shook her head. “Enough of crying over spilled mukah. Aren’t you eating?”  
Martin looked at Luna’s plate, she already emptied it. Martin still didn’t touch his portion. “I don’t want to. You can eat my portion too” said Martin while passing plate to Luna’s side of the table.  
“Is it because of my girls?” asked Luna.  
“No. Why. Please. That would be stupid. I don’t mind.” Martin felt as he starts to sweat while seeing Luna’s eyes locked on him. “They’re cool. And cute. Why would cute things make me lose appetite?”  
“Many of my friends had this problem so I can tell when I bother someone with it” said Luna. She stood up and went to take her turban she left on Martin’s bed.  
“Okay, yes” Martin admitted. “When I saw them with their slippery bodies covering entire plate, I freaked out. It was too much. I just imagined as if they walked on my food too.”  
“Should I hide my hair?” asked Luna. “Or will you try to overcome your fear at last?”  
“Overcome? What? How?”  
“Won’t it make it easier it easier if you get used to them? Or you don’t mind acting awkward anytime I take off my headwear? Have a chat with them, they won’t bite.”  
“I…” Martin wished he could refuse. He would do anything else over trying to get close to Luna’s snakish hair. No thanks, Martin wanted to say. But, he already acted like an idiot for long enough. And it was probably hard for her too, seeing how Martin was acting strange anytime she revealed her hair, he felt terrible for himself again. They knew each other for over three weeks and he kept on hurting her by not being able to get used to her abnormality.   
Martin came closer to Luna. She put her hands behind the back and smiled while standing still. He started slowly moving his hand towards the snakes, now they were staying calm, not moving at all and they weren't letting out a single hiss. Their stillness was calming, yet it was making Martin feel uneasy, thinking of them making one sudden move to bite him.   
“You can control them, right?” asked Martin as he stopped his finger in space.  
One hiss. Sudden move. One snake stretched itself. It tried to reach Martin. He panicked and pulled his hand away. Snake moved as if he wanted to bite Martin in the finger. As he had his hand already away from its range, snake changed his direction and rushed towards Martin’s face. Too scared to react he closed his eyes and waited for inevitable. But, nothing happened. Martin slowly opened his eyes. Snake was calmly returning to his pack on Luna’s hair and she was standing calm all this time as if nothing happened.  
“I’ll take it as a yes” said Martin through his teeth.  
Luna didn’t move or said anything. Her eyes remain closed and she was smiling. That smile, her devilish smile that almost never was leaving her face. She had to have a lot of fun from making people freak out because of her.  
If she ever decides to turn me to stone, thought Martin, last thing I’ll see won’t be her naked eyes, but her smile while she takes away my life with a cold blood.  
Martin kept on moving his hand forward. This time he knew that if there will be any sudden move of her hair, it will be just Luna trying to scare him and see him freaking out again. Hissing began, hair started shaking, but Martin ignored it and moved his hand closer. It won’t work on me second time, he thought. And then, he suddenly did it. He actually had his hand in Luna’s hair, moving his fingers alongside snakes’ slippery bodies. Disgusting,but not as bad as Martin expected. As he kept on moving his hand, Luna was letting out a moaning noises. Martin imagined he simply massages her head, but she seemed to enjoy it way too much.  
“Yes” she muttered.  
“Do you like it?” asked Martin.  
“Could you move a bit to the left?”  
Martin did as she said. He probably hurt or upset her in the past few days without noticing. Now he knew it and thought that he can compensate it for her at least this way. Moving hand alongside snakes’ bodies that were part of Luna’s hair felt weird to say the least, but also relieving, knowing that nothing bad will happen and he won’t be suddenly bitten. H started moving his hand closer to the center of her head.  
“Hmmm, yes. Good... Okay, stop.”  
“Did it start to tickle?” asked Martin.  
“No. But it starts to get very inappropriate” she said calmly. “Did you know that gorgon’s hair is also one of her erogenous zone?”  
Martin withdrew his hand as fast as he could and backed away from Luna. “What did you just make me do!” shouted Martin as he started to breathe heavily.  
“Helping you get used to my snake hair” explained Luna.  
“B-but… it was like… for you it was...”  
“Let’s keep it our little secret” said Luna as she started wrapping her turban around the hair.  
“Oh, you can be sure about that.” Martin run to the sink to wash his hand. “I’d rather die than let anyone find out about it.”  
“You can eat now” said Luna, reminding Martin about his food.  
“Why you have to be so cruel?” asked Martin.  
“But it worked, right? Your fear went away.”  
“Well.. yes, I guess” said Martin. “But now I will have trauma after what just happened.”  
“Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong. You would, if you didn’t stop.”  
That doesn’t make this situation look any better, thought Martin. He was sitting by the table, staring at his portion of the meal. But now he felt as if he was still holding snake’s slimy body. He overcame his fear, but it didn’t get his appetite back. “How many people do you let to touch your hair?” Martin had his hands under the table, too afraid to even touch the fork.  
“Only those I trust a lot” replied Luna.  
Martin slowly moved his hands on the table, ready to pick the cutlery. But, the fork suddenly disappeared from his sight. Luna took it. She stuck a piece of food on it and put it into Martin’s mouth.  
“Eat fast before it gets cold” she said.  
The door opened and Ray came in, while Luna was leaning over the table and feeding Martin.  
At least he didn’t came earlier, Martin tried to think positively.  
“I see your food didn’t come to waste” said Ray.  
“Yeah” replied Martin in the brief moment when he didn’t have any food in his mouth.  
“I was helping Martin as he struggled to eat his own food” explained Luna.  
“You don’t make it sound any better.” said Martin.  
He didn’t know why he argued about that, she probably did it intentionally anyway.  
Ray moved to his bed with a shaky walk, he looked like a living dead with his skin even more pale than usual. Luna noticed it and full of worries run up to him.  
“What happened? Do you want me to treat you with a curing soup?”  
“NO!” Ray shouted, becoming suddenly alive for one second. “I’m fine. I just need to rest a bit.”  
“What’s if your obsession of wanting to feed people?” asked Martin. “You should become a nurse or take care of elderly people.”  
“But you two are in need too” replied Luna.  
“We can eat on our own” said Martin.  
“Then why your plate is still full?” asked Luna. “But since you still have your hands and Ray doesn’t want any help, I’ll be going. I still have something important to do. And maybe you will get your will to eat back, once I’m gone. But that was a wonderful meal Martin. Looks like succubus didn’t make you forget about your friends after all. You are really kind.”  
That cannot be said about you, thought Martin. But he stopped himself from saying that and he simply smiled before Luna walked out.


	10. Chapter 10

During the evening Martin took Lily to the city center for shopping. He expected her to run from one clothes shop to another, but it turned out she was more interested in searching for home decorations and antiques. She didn’t plan to buy anything, she only watched,and with delight she daydreamed how good one carpet would look like in a living room once she has her own house. Martin felt tempted to mention it to Ash and Luna, just to prove them that succubuses can think of something else too. It was just jealousy after all, thought Martin. When seeing Lily admiring an old huge clock, he was feeling as if he won something.  
“Those old furnitures look better than most of the elven ones” said Lily while sliding her hand on one of the sofa in antique shop.“  
Martin simply smiled and let the girl enjoy her time while he was standing by the side. But no matter how hard he tried to avoid thinking of her succubus part, whenever she was leaning over, his eyes were moving almost against his will to look at girl’s butt in a tight black miniskirt. Even when she was childish and innocent while dreaming of her perfect future house, she didn’t stop to subconsciously affect Martin’s mind.  
Once they left another shop, the sun was already setting and the street lamps started to turn on. Martin thought it was a good time to finally return home, all this shopping started to get boring to him. At least taking Lily to all those shops didn’t hurt hs waller. As they walked down the street, Lily stopped suddenly. Martin turned around to see what kind of shop caught her interest now, it was shop with erotic clothing. Martin quickly grabbed Lily’s hand and tried to leave this street as soon as possible.  
“I’m not taking you there” said Martin. As he was pulling her, he noticed a tail emerging from her miniskirt and horns slowly grew on her haid. “Stop it!”  
“Don’t you want to see me in one of those?” she asked.  
“No, yes, no. Forget about it. We’re going home. Now you’re just a good human girl.”  
Lily kept on turning around to look at the shop exposition. She looked like a child who wasn’t let into the toy store. Eventually they took a turn behind the corner and Lily slowly was calming down. Her tail and horns disappeared. Martin left her hand free and she started nervously rubbing her hands and she was twisting her body while standing in one place.  
“I wasn’t using my powers the way I’m supposed to for quite a while” she said. “At moments like this I feel like getting back to my old habits.”  
“What are you talking about?” asked Martin. “You constantly use your powers on me. Didn’t you feel my hand covered in sweat and notice my wet forehead shining in the light? You’re still using all your succubus tricks.”  
“But I want more, it just reminds me of the good old times.”  
Lily was keeping her head low, she tried to look sad, but she actually tried to hide her smile as she was giggling under her nose.  
“Fine!” said Martin. “But come back here with someone else or on your own.”  
Martin started walking away, he didn’t turn around knowing that Lily sooner or later will give up and join him. They were returning to the dormitory, but before they got back they made a small detour to take a seat by the river. That was Lily’s suggestion that Martin could accept. As they were sitting in silence, Lily rested her head on Martin’s shoulder.  
“Hey, Martin” she started. “Don’t you like my face?”  
“What? Silly question, of course I do. You’re beautiful.”  
“I can change it if you want” said Lily.  
Martin increased distance between them and looked carefully at Lily.  
“Right” he said. “So succubuses can change faces. So the one you have now is also a mask? How do you really look like?”  
“Succubuses don’t have something like original looks. They keep on changing, depending on who they want to approach. And I already forgot my first appearance.”  
Her face and hair suddenly started molding, as if it was made of clay. After the process, that Martin found almost horrific to look at, girl looked at least one year younger. She had shorted hair, her nose was more narrow and round. Her eyes, lips,chin and even ears changed as well and for Martin it would be impossible not to be impressed by this look if he didn’t know it was just one of succubuses trick.  
“Does it fit your preference more?” she asked.  
“What preference?” asked Martin, still lost off track by Lily’s sudden idea to change her looks.  
“I made it based on what I gathered from your dreams” explained Lily. “To look like an ideal girl for your taste.”  
“You saw my dreams!?” Martin felt as if he was pressed against the wall. With no room to breathe, surrounded by succubus and her tricks from everywhere.  
“I just wanted to know what you really desire.”  
“But you didn’t have to! I didn’t ask you to! Why you had to do that?”  
Lily didn’t say anything. She quickly returned to her ‘original’ looks as she started sobbing. Martin wasn’t sure if it really made her this sad, or was it just an act to manipulate him.  
“What a fool.” Martin crossed his arms. “I told you I like you the way you are, yet you have to use your dirty skills to make it better. Life doesn’t have to be like from dreams.”  
“I tried to be a perfect succubus for you” she said in a break from crying. “So I wanted to use all of my power to become the best girl you could ever have.”  
“Even perfection has imperfections. And now you turned into a creepy stalker more than anything.”  
Lily stayed quiet. Martin didn’t intend to say anything either. Girl’s crying, ducks quacking on the shore, noise of the cars driving through the bridge, it all connected into one large annoying orchestra that was driving Martin crazy.  
That was a mistake, thought Martin. I should have known it from the start, they warned me after all. Even without warnings it should be obvious. Dream of sexy succubus girlfriend should stay just as a dream. Lily tried to tone down and make it look somehow natural, but looked like succubus will always remain just a succubus. Yes, that’s why I fell for it, he thought. She covered the dream under the mask of reality. She tried to act like a human, but all she probably thought of was how to use her succubus powers.  
Lily looked at him with her eyes red from crying. She tried to say something, Martin just waited what kind of surprise she’s going to offer him now.  
“Did you really want a succubus?” she asked. “Or a normal girl?”  
Human on streets, succubus in sheets, thought Martin but he stopped himself from saying that. “I think I’d rather stick to humans… or elves, yes, elves are pretty good cho-”  
Her appearance suddenly changed again, but her body and face remained the same. It was her clothes that changed, another surprising skill of succubus. She was back to wearing a black sweater covering her neck and arms, and a loose trousers.  
“Then I shall be a regular human girl.”  
“Regular human girl who only thinks of sex and how to make guy horny?”  
Lily hugged her legs and layed the head on her knees. “When I came to this world” she said. “I wanted to give up on my succubus nature. I just wanted to live like a normal human girl. And I thought that’s how I want to be with you. But once you said, you want a succubus, I thought with you it might be different. That I might try being myself and still be loved like a normal human. But it was a mistake, I just got back to my old habits and now you hate me. But if you want, I will hide my succubus aura entirely. No more teasing, no more sending dreams.”  
“Saying that was a mistake” said Martin recalling her talk on the ferris wheel. “I just got too excited back then from meeting the first succubus.”  
“And I was naive thinking that’s what you really wanted” replied Lily. “But now it all will change.”  
“Is it really that simple?” asked Martin.  
“I don’t know. I wish it was” said Lily. “Can you give me one more chance?”  
Martin kept on looking at Lily from a safe distance. What did I get myself into?- thought Martin. But some part of him wanted to believe it can really work out.

Martin walked Lily back to the dormitory, she hugged him before running into the building. Martin forced himself to keep smiling before she was out of sight. At least during their return he didn’t feel anything and he could feel more comfortable. No succubus power having effect on him, she really felt like a regular girl again. It made him think that maybe it was possible for her to tame down her powers and act just like a human. But Martin still considered Lily too unpredictable to know what she will do next time they meet. He just had to believe it won’t turn out just like Ash and Luna told him.  
As he was about to return to his own room, he noticed two people walking between the trees in the distance. Martin kept on looking at this funny couple near the male dormitory building. As he got closer he recognized those people. Ash walked with her book opened, Martin wondered how can she read and avoid hitting any tree on her way. Right behind her was Dorian, following her like a dog.   
So cute, thought Martin. At least they have it easier. Well, at least as long as Orion doesn’t find out and starts protecting his friend.

“I was the one who enchanted this fountain actually” Ash said proudly as they stopped by the fountain after walking around campus for hours. Sun was beginning to set and the campus area became more empty.  
“But why?” asked Dorian.  
“It didn’t have any useful purpose” she explained. “It was the rare occasion when we used magic for decorative reasons rather than to make something work. It just makes the water look more clear. So simple, yet so magical. At first we had to refuse, because we thought we can’t use magic in this world. But after just one day, one of the mages discovered a magic current and proved that indeed we can use magic in your world. More like it was just a speculation that was confirmed by trying to cast a spell.”  
“You are so fascinated about magic for someone who was forced to learn it” said Dorian.  
“That’s the case with most mages. Rarely anyone gets to choose on their own if they want to study at academy, it’s mostly just their parents’ decision. Most people end up loving it. But with me it was different, I didn’t like it on my first year there. From my group I was the one who was expected to achieve the most.” Ash took a seat on the fountain, she glanced on the crystal clear water behind her. She tapped the surface of the water to form ripples. “But I was also the one who hated magic the most.”  
“It’s hard to imagine you from the past being like that” said Dorian.  
“Part of me is still like that. But it mostly changed one day, when I overheard my classmates talking about magic currents. They said magic flows shape the world almost like a destiny. No matter how silly it sounds, when I think of it now, it was a turning point for me to really get into magic. If it wasn’t for that, I would probably still hate it.”  
“That’s-”  
“Anyway.” Ash suddenly jumped back on her feet. “We should get back to our research. And I should talk more about magic itself rather than my past.”  
“Both are interesting to listen to” replied Dorian.  
“Yes. I guess learning of a mage with a noble background like mine is interesting” she said, as her sight wandered away. “But I had enough of being like a celebrity in my world. Here I’m just equal to you. My background, family, past, it all doesn’t matter, at least it shouldn’t. Just don’t let it make you think differently about me.”  
“Other mages feel like a nobility compared to you” said Dorian.  
Ash crossed her arms. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Though you should avoid making them sound so unclear.”  
“Of course I meant it in a positive sense.”  
“Enough apprentice.” A book materialized in Ash’s hand and she hit Dorian’s head with it. “Apprentice should focus on gathering knowledge, not wasting time on a chit chat with a teacher.”  
“I’m sorry professor” said Dorian.  
“Anyway, the way mages collect magic from the surrounding to cast their spells…”  
Dorian tried to focus on what Ash was saying. He felt like he was really in the middle of the lecture. He still found it more fun than serious, but Ash looked like she really enjoyed teaching and he didn’t want to stop her. He realised he should pay more attention or Ash might end up scolding him for not listening. He just hoped, she won’t give him any test at the end of the day.  
“...Any questions?’ she asked.  
Her pause woke up Dorian from his thinking. He realised he drifted away with his thoughts for a moment. But he knew that saying ‘could you repeat’ wasn’t an option.  
“So far no” he said. “Please continue.”  
“Let’s get to the gym then. Magic currents might get confusing as I’ll be explaining further so I will be using examples to make it more clear.”  
She really got into that teacher thing, thought Dorian as he followed Ash.

“Magic wraps itself around the world like a veins in human body” said Ash. They passed the main entrance to the gym building. “But it’s more flexible, so when the flow of magic is disturbed in one place, magic simply finds another way to reach a certain place. It doesn’t stop it’s flow like a blood unable to reach the fingers when you fall asleep on our hand.”  
They heard sounds of shoes creaking on the gym hall and a ball hitting the ground rhythmically. As they walked into the gym hall, they saw a group playing basketball. It was university’s team having their practice. There were a lot of people sitting by the side as they had way too many people wanting to take part. Most of them were probably freshman students wishing to join the team. According to the new rules that got introduced in human world. Creatures from World Beta were allowed to be part of sport teams. But just how long will it take before people stop calling it unfair after losing to an elf jumping over two meters above the ground with ease and orcs forming a wall impossible to go through.  
“Oh” said Ash with a note of disappointment. “Looks like we can’t use this place now.”  
“You will show me some other time.”  
While Ash was thinking of something, Dorian took his time to look at the students playing the basketball. As soon as a coach noticed Dorian standing in the entrance, he walked up to him. Dorian couldn’t recall if he knew him, but looked like coach hear about him.  
“Dorian, is it?” he asked. “Do you want to join our team? Everyone was telling me you are really good.”  
“I guess” replied Dorian. “Today I’m busy but I can come to the next training. Do I have to pass som test before I will be let in? I see there are plenty of new people who want to join.”  
“There will be always a place for you” replied coach. “See you on Tuesday then.”  
Coach used his whistle to stop the game. He walked away from Dorian to talk to the team. Coach was giving advices to individual players, scolding them for their mistakes. Dorian looked at them while slowly stepping away from the gym hall. Some team members noticed Dorian while glancing to the side and waved to him.  
“Your skills were already acknowledged” said Ash, she was standing by the side all the time. “You must be very impressive player.”  
“I played in basketball team back in high school” replied Dorian. “I didn’t think about joining the team at university, but I guess it might be interesting with people from your world n the team.”  
“You can go join them now if you want” said Ash. “I will just go back to my research.”  
“It can wait” said Dorian.  
“I see. But we cannot use gym, that ruined my plans...What could I show you instead of this” Ash was thinking out loud. “This might be too complex… This will confuse you at this point… Maybe there’s still some basics I forgot to mention…”  
“Can’t you just show me some basic spells?” asked Dorian as he wished to finally see magic in use, instead of just listening to the theory.  
“In academy mages don’t learn casting spells until the second year. “  
“When I’ll reach that level will you teach me some?”  
“I think it will be too difficult. There’s a reason why only young kids are send to study in academy. After a certain age it becomes very difficult for people to learn how to use magic. Even if they try really hard, their spells become clumsy and can get out of control easily. So none of you can become mage anymore.”  
“Does it mean today’s lecture is over?”  
“That’s another reason why you cannot become a mage” said Ash while hitting Dorian’s head with a book again. “Student in the academy would never ask such question. And no, it’s not over, I know what I can teach you today. And it will be an opportunity to check something I needed to do anyway.”  
Ash grabbed Dorian’s hand and lead him outside. She wanted to check if magic has any impact on the nature and it’s growth in this world. In World Beta magic caused plants to grow to enormous sizes or giving birth to an unusual species with special properties. Apparently magic crossing to this world could cause change in this world’s fauna in the future as well. Dorian expected it to be something more interesting, but it turned into Ash looking at the trees from all angles while continuing giving Dorian a lecture on how magic was shaping their world. They spent hours near the boy’s dormitory building with Ash carefully checking every tree, one after another. He wondered what she can see while looking at those trees, but she said it’s hard to explain with the little knowledge Dorian had so far. Later, Ash pulled out few blades of grass and observed how it waves on the wind in her hand.  
“Oh” she suddenly said after staring at the grass for a solid five minutes. She realised she isn’t alone and Dorian is still standing next to her. “Yes, our lecture. I guess it’s enough knowledge for one day. Now let’s just do a short test to see how well you remember what I told you so far.”  
She’s really going to give me a test, thought Dorian. He wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. He tried to remember as much as he could but he was afraid she will ask exactly about the things she said when he was paying less attention. Ash was most likely a strict teacher, who doesn’t tolerate, when someone doesn’t focus on her lectures.  
Dorian anticipated the first question with his fists clenched.  
“Why elves are able to turn invisible?”  
“...Because of magic? You didn’t explain more about it.” Dorian expected to be hit with a book again, but instead Ash started tapping her cheek with an index finger.  
“Wait, I didn’t?... Oh no!” she grabbed her head with both hands. “I forgot about this part of the lesson… I’m such a terrible teacher. I should have put more thought into it before taking your time to teach you about our crafts.”  
“You can just tell me another time” said Dorian.   
“Does it mean you want to have another lesson?” asked Ash.  
“Yes, sure.” It’s still better than listening to annoying nymphs or being challenged for the hundredth time to an arm wrestling with an orc, he thought.  
“I promise to be more prepared for our next lesson then” she said.  
“Doesn’t it take you away from your research?”  
“I did some while I was giving you a lecture. I could split my attention to do both” she said as she turned around and headed to her dormitory.

When Ash came back to her room in the late evening, her roommate was already there. Ash’s smile quickly disappeared from her face.  
“He gave me one more chance” said the roommate with a joy as she spinned on the feet.  
“That’s great” said Ash out of politeness, but she couldn’t care less about her and her relationship she kept on talking about almost everyday.  
“I won’t mess it up this time” she said.  
“Sure Lily” replied Ash before yawning, she walked up to her bed and fell with her face straight on the pillow. She hoped that if she pretends to be asleep, Lily will shut up.


	11. Chapter 11

Ray scrolled his eyes across the list of the students who got accepted into student council pinned to the wall and gave out a breath of relief once he read his name.  
“They really have to have low standards if they let you in” said elf girl in formal uniform. “But since now we have to work together, you should just be my ally. Together we can create an unstoppable power in the student council. As long as you will support all of my decisions of course.”  
She wanted to shake his hand but Ray simply turned away to his friends and they walked away.  
“Will you let her bully you for the rest of the year?” asked Martin.   
“I just have to prove her I’m stronger than she thinks.”  
“But are you?” asked Martin.

It was Friday, lectures were always ending early that day, Martin and his friends went to the canteen before the noon. This time even Luna joined them by the table.  
Martin sighed as he was playing with his food without eating it.  
“What’s wrong? asked Ray. “You can’t sleep because of your girlfriend?”  
“What’s wrong with that sweater?” replied Martin. “Isn’t it too hot for that. Are you trying to hide something?”  
“It’s cold for me” replied Ray, while staying completely calm.  
“No wonder, you look so pale” said Martin.  
“Then maybe I’m just a bit sick” said Ray. “But it’s nothing serious.”  
“I don’t know” replied Martin. “It looks pretty serious to me. How’s your blood pressure?”  
“Great, but I guess I need to take a walk. Maybe it will help” Ray stood up and walked away after barely touching his meal.  
“Easy free food” said Martin as he took Ray’s plate for himself. Everyone looked at him with eyes full of disapproval, except for Luna, who was trying to stop herself from giggling but her cackling still could be heard easily.  
“What is your version of this saying” said Luna. “Pot calling the kettle black?”  
“It’s not the same. And I don’t know what you are talking about” replied Martin. It was obvious for him that Luna knew what was going on with Ray. If she could sense a succubus from miles away, she didn’t have a problem with sensing Ray being affected by a vampire.  
“You’re right” said Luna. “It’s more like lava calling boiling water too hot.”  
“Ray is just as stupid as me” replied Martin.  
“Now you are comparing apples or orange” said Luna.  
“There’s really not that big of a difference between us, as you would think. Ray just likes to hide this fact.”  
“I guess devil really is in details” replied Luna. “Or is the devil that detail?”  
Martin slammed the table as he stood up. “Did you just started learning our idioms or what!?” Martin walked away.  
“Yes actually” she said when Martin already left the canteen. She took both Martin’s and Ray’s plates. “He was right, this really is an easy free food.”  
Dorian and Ash looked at each other, they were both equally confused about what just happened. But Luna was too busy swallowing three plates full of food before it gets cold, to tell them anything.

When Martin left the canteen, he saw Ray walking in the distance together with Melissa. They were heading to the area filled with trees, but they didn’t intend to hide they go there together as they were walking slowly next to each other. But after a while, Ray turned around and noticed his friend.  
“Don’t you have better things to do than stalking a friend!?” shouted Ray.  
“Stalking is necessary if that friends gets himself into a trouble.” Martin run up to them.  
“I don’t have any troubles. I don’t know how did you find out, but you must have got the wrong idea. I’m just feeding her with my blood, that’s all.”  
“He agreed to do that” said Melissa. “I don’t drink anyone’s blood without their permission.  
“Look at him!” said Martin. “He is so pale. You’re killing him.”  
“I know what I’m doing” said Ray.  
“Apparently not, unless you want to die.”  
“You are dating a succubus. What gives you the right to judge me?”  
“Wait, are you really dating a succubus?” asked Melissa before bursting into laughter.  
Ray rested his hand on girl’s shoulder. “I’ll join you later” he said.  
“Okay okay, I get it” said Melissa while slowly pulling back from boys. “Vampires are controversial thing, just talk it through.”  
They stayed quiet until Melissa walked away far enough. Boys stared at each other, Ray tried to look calm, but his hostile look was giving him away. He couldn’t stand Martin’s posture, so confident, as he believed he had an upper hand.  
“Who would have thought even Ray can go crazy over a girl.”  
“I’m doing it just to help her. There’s nothing more to it” replied Ray.  
“Okay then. But how do you expect to keep your high scores on tests when you are looking more like a zombie with each day?”  
Ray sighed, he looked after Melissa, but she already disappeared somewhere between the trees. “She said she knows what she’s doing.”  
“Same goes for Lily. We are either both right, or both really naive to trust them.”  
Ray started to feel dizzy. He couldn’t just stop before, if he showed any weakness, Martin would get an easy victory proving he was right. But now Ray couldn’t stand any longer, he took a seat on the ground to catch a breath.  
Martin knew that as soon as h leaves, Melissa will come to help he so he turned around as he was about to return to the canteen.  
“I won’t tell anyone” said Martin. “But you still have to make sure Luna keeps her mouth shut too. Because of her snake senses, she probably already knows your secret too.”

After Martin walked away, Melissa appeared, almost out of nowhere, running to help Ray get up.  
“What a caring friend” said Melissa. “But he could calm his ass down a bit.”  
“Do you need blood everyday?” asked Ray. He still felt dizzy, but at least he was able to stand on his own legs.  
“I guess I really overdid it with this lie. The truth is that I need to drink at least once a week. But you taste so good, I thought I’ll lie to get the most out of you. Of course I would stop once it went too far. But it would still be me deciding about when to stop, right? You don’t know what’s okay and what’s too much. You would end up dead rather than ever saying ‘please stop, I’m too weak. I cannot give you more of my blood.’ I almost feel bad for abusing you like this.”  
“I’ll be giving you blood once a three days from now on” said Ray trying to sound as confident as possible. “Just so that I don’t have to risk collapsing suddenly in the middle of the hallway.”  
“You spoil me too much” she said while joining hands in a heart shape. “Or you just got addicted to it? You like those teeth sucking blood from your neck, don’t you?”  
“Maybe I’m just stupid” said Ray. Now he had to focus on keeping up the balance of his body all the time.  
Melissa grabbed Ray by the shoulder. “Damn, I really made you into a corpse” she said. “I didn’t realise because you looked so pale even when I first met you.” They slowly walked to the dormitory. Melissa didn’t leave his side until she made sure he lays safely in his bed. He assured him that he should recover in a few days and that whenever he will be in need, there will always be a vampire watching over him.

Ray wanted to get up as fast as possible, he had some thoughts about vampires he wanted to write down in his notefile and a few emails he had to write today. But he fell asleep without realising. He was woken up by someone suddenly walking into the room. Ray couldn’t tell what time it was or for how long he was sleeping. It was cloudy gray day, it could start raining anytime and it was impossible to tell if it was afternoon or evening by looking through the window.  
“Oh, did I wake you up?” asked Ash who stood in the room, ready to head back to the exit.  
“No, I just took a small nap” said Ray, trying to stop her from leaving too fast. “But I should get back to work now.”  
“You look tired, maybe you really should rest” said Ash.  
“I never expected to hear that from a mage” replied Ray. He tried to laugh but he was too tired and sleepy.  
“Maybe your people consider it overworking, but our bodies got used to this. We still take our time to rest if we feel weak or sick. True, when we lie in bed sick, we get tons of books we need to study in that time, but it’s still some kind of rest. But in your state even an archmage would consider taking day off.”  
“I can’t possibly look that bad.”  
Ash tapped her cheek with a finger. “In canteen you didn’t. But now you look like a dead, who someone used reincarnation spell on. Tell me Ray, did someone turn you into an undead?”  
Ray slowly got up from his bed to the sitting position.  
“I’m fine now.”  
“I shall make a tea. Elves have a special recipe that strengthens body and mind. All mages are fond of it as it makes studying smooth and more enjoyable. Just let me get the ingredients from my room, our plants seem to be more effective than yours-”  
“You are probably busy” said Ray. “Just return to what you had to do.”  
“Actually” said Ash. “I came because I wanted to play chess before I get back to doing my research. But since you are in this state I can at least prepare a tea for you… And maybe later Dorian has time for our next lesson?”  
“I can play chess. It doesn’t require much physical effort” said Ray as he tried to stand up. But he felt some kind of invisible force pushing him back to bed. And suddenly he was sitting again. Not sure what was happening to him, he thought it might be just a fever dream. A blanket rose from the bed and levitated next to Ray before wrapping itself around Ray and putting him to lying position.  
“I thought you aren’t allowed to use magic for a silly reasons” said Ray, after freeing his mouth from under the blanket.  
“This isn’t silly” said Ash in scolding tone. “If I won’t do anything, you just get back to doing your own things. Someone needs to stop you. You shouldn’t leave the bed for the rest of the day. But I won’t bind you to bed with a spell, I trust you will listen to reason and just stay here. I’ll come later to check how you are doing.”  
After hearing the sound of door being closed, Ray laid down in his bed. How could I end up looking so pathetic, he thought. I ended up being worse than Martin, he probably has a lot of fun seeing me in such state.  
Speaking of devil, Martin came into the room few minutes after Ash left. He glanced at Ray resting in the bed, he wasn’t sleeping but they both avoided looking at each other. Martin took some items from his drawer before heading to the exit.  
“Do you want me to make you something to eat?” asked Martin before leaving. “I can tell Lily to wait a bit, she always comes fashionably late anyway.”  
“No” replied Ray. Despite this quick answer, Martin waited before leaving the room, just to make sure Ray doesn’t change his mind suddenly.  
Ray flipped on his other side, facing the wall. Left in silence he quickly fell asleep again.

When he woke up, it was already dark outside. Ray could barely see anything in the room, mostly using his memory of this place, rather than eyes that needed time to get used to the darkness. It was raining outside, huge raindrops were hitting against the windows. Ray finally felt strong enough to get up. He walked to the light switch on the other side of the room, trying not to trip over anything on his way. He remembered there was Martin’s backpack left somewhere on the floor.  
It was late and it was raining outside, yet no one came home yet. In normal circumstances, Ray wouldn’t mind it. But because of his sickness it was making him feel uneasy, alone in this silence, barely able to walk on his own. He even missed loud Martin who maybe talked too much about things no one cared about, but he was always making this room feel more alive.  
At least I can work in peace, thought Ray. He took a seat and opened his laptop. His eyes hurt from looking at the bright screen, it took him few minutes to get used to it. He was filling his notefile about species from World Beta when suddenly someone walked into the room. Looked like there was no end to the visitors today. This time it was Luna. She shook off water from her yellow umbrella and put it next to the door.  
“I heard you don’t feel well today” said Luna as she was taking off her headwear.  
“I’m feeling better now” replied Ray.  
“I made something that will help you recover” said Luna as she put a bag of cookies on the desk next to Ray’s laptop. He glanced at the bag, but after his last experience with Luna’s cooking, he preferred to stay cautious.  
“What is it made of?”  
“Is it important? Why would it matter if soup is made of snails or you eat fish’s eye as long as it tastes good? You don’t need to know exact construction of the car to properly drive and you don’t need to know how a bed was made for you to enjoy sleeping in it. You make big deal about snails in the soup, but if you saw chickens or cows as they get turned into food, it would look just as disgusting as Hamiral’s snails boiled into a soup.”  
“That’s different. I don’t mind eating cows, but can’t imagine eating snails.”  
“Yet you drank entire soup without a problem” said Luna.  
Ray looked at the bag of cookies again. He took one of them, he observed Luna’s expression before taking a bite. Then he started examining the cookie from all sides.  
“I won’t tell what it’s made of until you try it” said Luna with a singing voice.  
It made Ray feel even more suspicious and put down the cookie. He didn’t like surprises in general, but when it came to food, he always had to know what he’s getting himself into.  
“Okay okay” she said. “It’s made of snakes.”  
Ray gave up on trying to get any information from Luna and immediately took the first bite. It tasted like a cheese with peanuts and potatoes, weird but edible. He would eat far worse things, just to recover fast before others find out his secret and start accusing Melissa.  
“Do you like the taste of the snakes?” asked Luna.  
“Maybe you’re right. Sometimes I don’t need to know.” But deep inside, curiosity was growing more and more. He could probably even lose sleep this night thinking about it, if he wasn’t so tired.  
“It’s good for anemia” said Luna.  
Ray sighed after finishing eating first cookie. “Am I stupid for helping a vampire?”  
“Depends. Are you doing it for her or for yourself?”  
“Of course I do it for her” Ray for the first time after returning to dorm room raised his voice. “I don’t find pleasure in being weakened and losing blood.”  
“But some masochists find a pleasure in relationships with vampires. But looks like you are not one of them. But that’s not the way to help her, there’s a cure for vampirism. Nowadays, vampires exist only by choice, not accident. Mages turn them into normal humans and you are so lucky to know a mage girl who can actually do it.”  
“If it’s really that simple, why there are still vampires?”  
“For immortality? For the sole pleasure of drinking blood? Everyone has their own reason. But if you really want to help her, just let her be cured instead of turning her into your mosquito.”  
Ray thought it was too easy to be true. He was ready to just say “yes, let’s do this”, thinking how everything would suddenly become much easier with Melissa as a human being. She didn’t seem to like being a vampire anyway. But then Ray gave it just a second of thought.  
“What’s the catch?” asked Ray.  
“Side effect” said Luna. “Amnesia. Cured ones lose all of her memories. They start from the scratch knowing only basics and sticking to their old habits. Even amnesia can’t stop a vampire from being a smoker or a gambler. But other than that, they don’t remember anything from their past life. Confused by where they are, who are the people around them, not able to recognize their own parents. They know how to speak and their skills still remain because of the muscle memory. It’s assumed only the conscious part of the brain gets messed up in the process.”  
“That explains why they wouldn’t want to be cured.”  
“I had a friend who was a vampire” said Luna. “After he got cured, we were helping him to get used to his new life. There’s no way to make any memory come back, it remains only as words coming from the close ones. But he opened his own pharmacy shop recently. It was his dream even back when he was a vampire.”  
“I don’t know” said Ray. “I won’t let her be cured if she doesn’t want to.”  
“Then I will make more cookies. You will need them.”  
Luna picked up her umbrella and spinned it on her wrist while heading to the exit.  
“Just don’t tell anyone” said Ray.  
Luna returned to the center of the room while humming. It made Ray wonder if she ever feels worried about anything. “Martin hiding that his girlfriend is a whore and you hide your pact with a mosquito. So many secrets I have to stay quiet about.”  
Luna adjusted her glasses and Ray caught himself staring at her eyes again. This time she noticed it and she winked to him. Ray shifted his head to the side to stare at the rain outside.  
“Martin stays quiet because we both made similar mistake. But Dorian’s judgement might be too much. And I don’t know what to expect of Ash once she finds out, she might cure her without me knowing about it.”  
“I keep my mouth shut only when I want to” replied Luna. She left without Ray knowing if she will keep the secret or not.

Martin and Lily were downtown, eating donuts on the bench, when they got caught by the rain. Soaked wet they returned to the campus, since Ray was still most likely lying in his bed, Lily offered him to stay in her room for a while.  
“What about your roommates?” asked Martin.  
“One returned home for a weekend and won’t be here until Sunday evening and second is a mage, she’s always busy doing something outside.”  
“You have a mage roommate?” asked Martin.  
Playful succubus and a strict mage, that’s a duo that should never live with each other. Martin wondered who assigned people in such a weird manner, then he remembered that succubuses were still pretending to be just a regular humans. Looked like no one could predict where succubuses and vampires were hidden in the dormitories.  
Once they walked into Lily’s room, she immediately took off her jacket and she was about to take off her shirt too.  
“What are you doing!” Martin could already feel her succubus appeal making his blood pressure rise.  
“I felt so comfortable around you Martin, that I forgot I was supposed not to use my power on you” said Lily. “Could you wait outside when I get changed?”  
Martin moved to the hallway and waited, while staring at the door. He couldn’t believe himself that he stopped the girl from undressing right in front of him. But if she was affecting him so much while wearing clothes, just how much her succubus power would make his mind go crazy if she was only in her underwear.   
After a moment, Lily opened the door letting Martin in.  
“If you can transform your clothes at will, why you needed to get changed?” asked Martin.  
“Because transformed clothes would be wet too. Succubus life isn’t always as easy as it seems.”  
Martin looked around. Lily’s spot was easy to differentiate from others- her bed and all items on shelves were in huge mess, with everything lying randomly in utter chaos. Curious about Lily’s roommates, Martin looked at other girls’ beds. On one of them he noticed something, he quickly recognized it. It was his camera, the one he lent Ash. It was lying in pieces, every single part of it was separated. Martin first was impressed by how mage girl, who never had a contact with this world’s technology managed to separate all camera components without breaking it. Only later he started to actually realise that it meant Ash was living here and she could come in at any moment.  
“But now you aren’t a succubus” said Martin as he tried to put those thoughts aside and focus on dealing with Lily. “You are just a regular girl.”  
“Yes yes, but…” Lily was shaking her legs as she walked in circles. “I feel urge to use my power. Even if just a bit. Please, don’t you want to be slightly teased?”  
“No” replied Martin. Maybe if you didn’t ask so directly, he thought.  
“But why?” Lily looked at Martin with her eyes that could start flooding with tears at any moment. “Why you refuse it? You don’t like it? But everyone loved when I used my powers on them. Oh yes Lily, thanks to you I find my wife attractive again. I’m so glad you sent me those dreams Lily, now I have a will to live again. Thanks for spicing up my boring life. Hypnotize me with your ass again Lily.”  
“Okay what” Martin stopped her. “Actually nevermind. Maybe they all were saying they like it, but I’m pretty sure they had their concerns about it. They just didn’t say it because it’s hard to say no to such cute girl like you.”  
“But you don’t have problems saying no.” Lily tilted her head. “Maybe I should actually let you see me undress.”  
“No. That’s not how it should work. Okay, maybe- No! Just forget about it.”  
Lily lowered her head like a dog after being scolded, she turned around to look at the rain outside and pressed her hands to the window.   
“Can I use my powers on others then? Nothing serious, just a bit of teasing and maybe a few dreams to release some of my powers.”  
“No. I’d prefer you using it on me instead of some strangers. Is it really necessary for you to keep on using your power?”  
“I don’t think so but…” A tail emerged from under her jeans. It started waving back and forth, as if it was out of control. Lily turned around to face Martin. “If we are dating it shouldn’t make a difference.  
As she was about to get closer to Martin, who pulled back and was pressing his back against the wall, they suddenly stopped as they heard someone opening the door.   
Finally saved, thought Martin. But his happiness didn’t last long after realising it was Ash and Dorian that walked in and soon they will see them in this awkward situation. Lily managed to hide her tail in time leaving at least one problem to explain out of the way.  
“What’s going on here?” asked Ash.  
“We were just having a little fun” replied Lily. “Until you interrupted us.”  
Martin squeezed his head. “You make it sound so wrong” he said.  
“You know each other” said Ash to Martin. “Don’t tell me it was you Lily kept on talking about.  
“Well. Yes. I know her. But. You see. It’s actually. Long story short-”  
“He’s my boyfriend” said Lily.   
Martin squeezed his head again. Trying to explain anything with Lily nearby was impossible. It’s as if she was sabotaging him.  
“Is she bothering you Martin?” asked Ash.  
“Well…” he looked back and forth at Ash and Lily. No matter what he says, it will be wrong. He was in situation without the solution. He had to choose which one will be easier to deal with when made angry. “We were just spending time together” he said.  
“Don’t worry” said Lily. We wouldn’t use your bed.”  
“My bed!? What?”   
“Why are you provoking her?” asked Martin.  
“Do I?” asked Lily.  
“Calm down Ash” said Martin. “Lily is just creating misunderstanding to annoy you.”  
“Yes, I imagine” said Ash while crossing her arms.  
Martin looked at Lily and he couldn’t stand how much unaware of her stupidity she was. Dorian remained silent standing by the side, probably the most unaware of what was going on. Meanwhile Ash didn’t even think twice before leaving the room in haste. Dorian followed right after her.  
Martin sighed. He felt helpless not knowing how to solve this problem. As he looked at the door being shut by Dorian, he suddenly felt something warm on his cheek. It were Lily’s lips kissing him.  
“Don’t worry about her honey” she said.  
Hearing her playful smile while horns were growing on her head made him shiver, thinking what could this succubus plan for him.

Seeing how Dorian was chasing after her, Ash stopped in the middle of the hallway.  
“You don’t need to go with me” she said. “I will go visit Orion.”  
“If you wish so” said Dorian. He didn’t intend to stop her and let her do what she wanted.  
But as he turned around, he wondered if there was any point in returning to that room. He would be just a third wheel there. He was about to return to his dorm room, when suddenly he heard the door being opened. Martin walked out, holding his hands in the pockets.  
“How did it go?” asked Dorian.  
“Let’s just get back and see how’s Ray doing.”  
Dorian run up to Martin, trying to keep up with his fast pace. Dorian sensed that Martin doesn’t wish to talk and he remained silent as well.  
“I’m sorry for ruining your date” said Martin.  
“It wasn’t a date, she was just giving me a lecture about magic” said Dorian. “It’s more like we disturbed your date.”  
“You actually saved me” replied Martin. They were outside, it was raining harder than before they hid inside the dormitory. But instead of trying to get to their dorm room as fast as possible, Martin suddenly stopped. “Who needs normal girlfriend anyway. Maybe we should just date succubuses instead.”  
Dorian looked around to make sure no one is around. Area was dead empty, aside from a group of nymphs in the distance who seemed to enjoy the rain as they were dancing and jumping in the puddles.  
“Just don’t say Ray” said Dorian. “But I was actually thinking about it too. After hearing Ash’s stories about succubuses it got me curious.”  
“For me it feels like something that’s both fantastic and dangerous. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have their wildest fantasies come true? But then you realise that means living with a girl who thinks only about sex and that fantasies are usually better left in a dream world.”  
“Sounds like something good only for a while” said Dorian. “Well, maybe we should avoid succubuses after all, just like Ash told us. I don’t want to be scolded by her again, after our lessons I got a lot of this anyway.”  
“But she looks so cute when she gets angry” said Martin.  
“You wouldn’t say that after being hit with a book hundreds of times.”


	12. Chapter 12

Dorian started Saturday morning just like always, with a training. He run through a muddy campus grounds after yesterday’s rain. Once he was passing around basketball field, he saw a girl doing push ups there. It was the same one he saw on one of his first days after moving to dormitory. Dorian stopped his running session earlier, to join the girl in training. He run up to her, she noticed him already from a distance, but she didn’t stop her exercise even when Dorian was next to her.  
“So you are that Dorian everyone talks about” she said.  
“I guess it’s me” replied Dorian.  
“I still can’t figure out what made you so popular. What did you do?”  
“I wish I knew. It just suddenly happened.”  
“They make a lot of weird stories about you” she said. “It’s hard to guess which ones are real. And soon they will probably make a story of you fighting a dragon.”  
“I’m not proud of what they think of me” replied Dorian.  
“I realised.”  
Dorian joined girl on the ground to do push ups with her.  
“So you are from this world?” asked Dorian.  
“Funny how that became a basic question when meeting someone. But yes, I’m Natalie and I’m from here. Though orcs keep saying I’m like one of them.”  
“I get that a lot too.”  
“Idiots” said Natalie. “Just because someone is strong enough to lift few kilograms or has head strong enough to withstand their weird beer they already have to compare them to themselves. But at least they know how to work hard and it’s normal for everyone to regularly hit the gym. I guess I’ll take that over elves who spend way too much time working on their beauty instead.”  
“Yes, I guess it’s better to be compared to orc” replied Dorian.  
“You know what Dorian” she said while getting up from the ground. “You are not as great as everyone says. Well, that’s not a huge surprise, but you are really boring actually.”  
Dorian didn’t even get a chance to ask her what she meant, as she was already running off in the distance.  
“It’s time for me” she added before disappearing behind the corner. 

Martin woke up early, Lily sent him another dream that night. Succubus’ dreams were meant to make people sleep better, but even if it was making Martin sleep like a baby, it was making him wake up early and even more tired. Martin didn’t mind it, until close to the end of the dream he started getting slightly conscious, enough to remind himself all those scenes are just part of Lily’s tricks. At that point he woke up, too afraid to close eyes again before he sees more of it.   
Surprisingly Ray was already awake as well, already returning from his morning shower.  
“Do you feel better today?” asked Marin.  
“Yes, Luna’s cookies seemed to work. But you look like a sick one now.”  
Martin realised he was covered in sweat, just like always when being haunted by succubus’ dream.  
“It was just hot this night” Martin tried to explain. “You probably didn’t feel it because everything feels cold to you now.”  
“Everyone makes mistakes” said Ray. “But in a few days I should feel better. And now that I will be giving Melissa less blood everything should be back to normal.”  
“Nothing can get back to normal after we started studying here” said Martin as he finally got up from his bed. He looked at Ray passing near his table and taking another of the cookies. He was twisting his face a bit anytime he was taking a first bite of a new cookie, but he kept on eating those snacks all the time since he got them yesterday. “Also” said Martin. “What’s with you and Luna?”  
He quickly set aside all his thoughts about Lily and issues with her succubus power and recalled what he heard from Luna last night when he saw her coming back after visiting Ray.  
“Your friend is interesting” she said. “I’ve never seen someone looking at my eyes with such interest. He looked at me as if I was a succubus.”  
Ray started changing clothes as he was getting ready to leave.  
“What do you mean?” asked Ray. “She just gives me food that helps me recover from her own good will. I didn’t ask her to do that.”  
“No, I’m talking about something else. I saw how you look at her in the canteen. Did her turning to stone eyes hypnotize you? Or you just secretly want to die and thought that’s the best way to go?  
“I was just curious how it works” said Ray. “And I ended up staring like an idiot.”  
“Then just ask her about her power, instead of just staring and waiting till her glasses drop and you experience turning to stone on your own. At least try to do it in secret, you made it so obvious now she’s making fun of you because of that.”  
“I need to go” said Ray. “I still need to discuss something with Melissa.”  
Ray quickly headed to the exit, but Martin stood on his way blocking the door, he moved his hand behind the back to turn the lock in the door. Ray was leaning from side to side, trying to find a way to pass through his friend.  
“I won’t tell anyone” said Martin.  
Ray sighed. “You can be more cruel than I expected”  
“You were just asking for it”.  
“… It’s just her eyes.”   
“I know it’s her eyes, it’s a bait to lure people in, even I noticed it. But why? Is it really enough to lure in someone who normally shows no interest in opposite gender?”  
“Glasses… I guess I have a thing for girls in glasses.”  
Martin burst in laughter, but he still remained close to the door making sure Ray can’t slip by.  
“You are dating a succubus, compared to that it’s nothing.”  
“No no, of course not.” Martin forced himself to calm down. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I just got surprised, I didn’t expect you to be like that. So, that means gorgons are pretty much a perfect kind for your taste?”  
“Maybe. But Luna is still just a friend to me. It’s just her looks, and those eyes behind the frames of her glasses. It really makes her look hot. I’m disgusted by myself. And I thought if I tell you my secret I will feel better, but it just made me feel worse about me.”  
“You don’t have to feel embarrassed as long as Luna doesn't find out.”  
“If you tell her-”  
“I won’t give her this satisfaction” said Martin. “This time she will be the one not knowing everything. She cannot have upper hand against us all the time.” Martin unlocked the door and stepped aside to let Ray out. “Thank you for revealing your sins to the god. You can go now child.”  
As Martin was left alone in the room, he started studying. He was aware Ray and Dorian are probably working hard as well when he isn’t around. And after making his first impression of being just another moron, Martin couldn’t slack off and prove them they were right. By the end of the semester I will be the one laughing, he thought.  
But it didn’t last long before he got disturbed by someone knocking to the door.  
“Come in.”  
Ash slowly sneaked into the room and looked around.  
“Ray isn’t here?” she asked.  
“He should be back soon” said Martin as he returned to looking at his notes.  
“I see. But since you are here I should use this opportunity to apologize for yesterday. I wasn’t controlling myself. But my roommate really grinds my gear all the time. Maybe you don’t have any problems with her, but any mage would have enough after spending one day with her.”  
“She is annoying” agreed Martin. “I will try to convince her to behave in your room.”  
“That’s too much for me to ask for. And I lived in tougher conditions before. But recently she just kept on talking about her new boyfriend, apparently it was you. Why would anyone want to listen about that? Normally I shouldn’t look into someone’s private life and ignore what she’s talking about. But her stories beg for questions, lots of questions.”  
“Most of what she was saying was probably made up” said Martin.  
“I hope so” replied Ash. “Because otherwise I would be afraid of your sanity.”  
Martin stayed with his mouth opened, but he didn’t utter a single word. Abandoning this topic was the best he could do.  
“I’ll come back later then” said Ash.  
“Wait” Martin stopped her where she was already walking out. Suddenly something came to his mind, and he saw a perfect opportunity in Ash coming here at exactly this moment. “If you have a moment now, I have an idea.”

Martin convinced Ash to go with him to Luna’s room, promising he will explain everything on their way there. He called Luna saying that he needs something from her and she agreed without questioning anything.  
“I want to try on some of her glasses” said Martin.  
“But why? My sight is perfectly fine. I don’t need glasses.”  
“Luna neither. But I made a bet with Ray if you will look better with a pair of glasses. He said for such a smart girl like you, it’s only fitting to wear it.”  
“But that’s just a stupid stereotype from your world.” Ash suddenly stopped,refusing to follow Martin any further.  
“Yes, but there’s also a bet that can let me win five Euro. As long as I’ll make you look as good as possible with just a pair of glasses.” Martin grabbed her hand trying to pull her with him.  
“Wait.” Ash freed herself from his grasp. “Then who betted on what result? You made it confusing.”  
“Can you at least once, do something without overthinking it? Also I think Dorian would love to see you wearing glasses too.”  
“Hmmm” Ash stopped in the middle of the road again. “Yesterday he actually said that I only lack glasses to look like a real teacher. Could he imply that he wanted me to have one? Oh, I’m really bad at reading such subcontexts. But why would I do it for him? It’s a silly request.” Ash crossed her arms.  
That was lucky, thought Martin as he couldn’t believe that his random lie turned out to be closer to truth than he expected. With just a bit more convincing, trying to tell Ash to stop analyzing everything too much, she was slowly getting ready to agree to Martin’s idea. After that, she didn’t resist anymore to follow him to Luna’s room.  
Luna was sitting alone in her room, reading final few pages of the book she bought when she went to bookstore with Martin. Since she was alone in the room, her snakes weren’t covered by anything. They were stretching their bodies towards the sunlight like a plants.  
“Did Ray ask for more of the cookies?” asked Luna as she put the book to the side.  
“No, but I guess he will need them sooner or later” replied Martin as he took the bag of cookies lying on the desk, waiting for him to take.Looked like she expected Ray to finish his one week cookie supply in just one day.  
“What cookies?” asked Ash. She peeked into a bag Martin was holding. “Can I try one?”  
Martin opened the bag, letting Ash take one while Luna returned to reading a book, not paying any attention to them.  
“That tastes familiar” she said after swallowing first half of the treat. “Oh, I know. It’s that medicine made for curing disease after being attacked by a vampire. I remember when we treated such condition in one of the villages and we learned to prepare those… Wait, does it mean Ray felt so bad recently because a vampire sucked his blood?”  
“It’s not only to cure anemia” said Luna. “It’s good for any blood related diseases.”  
“Oh, does it mean I started getting paranoid?” Ash looked at the cookie she was holding. “First I suspect my roommate is a succubus and now I imagine, that Ray got attacked by a vampire.”  
“That’s because you worry too much” said Martin. “Danger doesn’t have to wait on every corner.”  
“That’s the same thing therapist was telling me after I got eaten by a chest” said Ash.  
“Well” said Martin. “Bad accidents are bound to happen. And no matter how much you will be prepared for them, something bad will happen sooner or later.”  
“Was it your attempt to calm me down?” asked Ash. “Because if so, now I’m even more convinced some of my worries are true.”  
“Martin meant” said Luna. “That if any of them is so stupid to fall for the traps of succubuses or vampires, they would be dead long time ago.”  
“Yes, Luna has a point” said Martin. “But let’s get back to what we actually came here for. Luna, can we borrow some of your glasses?”  
“Like this one?” asked Luna as she made a move, as if she was about to take off the glasses from her head.  
Ash screamed while turning around. “Don’t joke like this. One day you will accidentally kill someone like that.”  
“So, Martin. Why do you need my glasses?” asked Luna.  
“It’s for Ash. Just for one day. I have something fun in mind. That’s all you need to know.”  
Luna opened a drawer where she kept six pairs of different glasses, as well as three pairs of sunglasses. Martin picked the round ones with dark flames and put her on Ash’s nose. Ash kept on poking the bridge of the glasses and moving temples left and right.   
“Does it really change anything?” asked Ash.  
Martin was tilting his head, looking at Ash’s face from different angles, as if he was a photographer trying to find the best profile to take picture of her.  
“It’s perfect, trust me” said Martin.  
Ash bowed before Luna. “I promise to return them before the end of the day.”  
“You can keep them as long as I have other spare pairs” said Luna.  
“Okay” said Martin. “Now let’s go to set up a trap- I mean, to win the bet.”  
Martin wanted to leave the room as fast as possible, but Ash stayed, as if she completely forgot about his existence. She was staring at Luna’s hair.  
“I never had experience with a gorgon before” said Ash. “Can I touch your hair?”  
“No!” shouted Martin.  
“Sure.”  
“Trust me” said Martin “You don’t want to.”  
“Why?” asked Luna. “Is there something that worries you about it”  
Martin couldn't even be mad at her, as he was more impressed by how well she planned all of this to keep him in check, always ready to bring up their recent experience whenever she wanted.  
Ash examined Luna’s hair carefully before getting her hand closer to the snakes. She confidently moved her hand and started patting one of the snakes  
“I did it” said Ash, slightly opening her eyes to glance at her hand, still intact. “I faced the unknown and I overcame my fears. I never actually had a chance to have a better look at gorgon’s hair. Now I feel enlightened.”

Meanwhile Ray waited in his usual meeting spot with Melissa, among the trees near the canteen. She came a short while after Ray, sneakily emerging from behind the tree.  
“Are you a masochist or what? I told you I don’t need that much blood” she said.  
“That’s not why I wanted to talk” said Ray. He already made a plan of this conversation back at dorm room, but now it all seemed to fly away, his mind was empty and he had difficulty finding the right words. “I heard about the cure for vampirism. I know what price is paid for the cure, but I was wondering what do you think of it.”  
Melissa took a sudden step back and she almost walked into a tree.  
“I’d rather die, than turn into normal human” she said. “I don’t know how about you, but I prefer remembering my past. So you found out about a cure and now you want to ‘help me’? f you don’t want me to take anymore of your blood, you can just say, I’ll find myself another victim.” Melissa came closer to tightly grab Ray by the arms and get her head closer to his neck. “But I’m not that bad, am I?” she whispered to his ear. “Or did you suddenly see me as a threat?”  
“Calm down” said Ray, trying to get free from her grasp. “I don’t intend to cure you without your permission. I just wanted to ask about your opinion. I just made it poorly.”  
Melissa let Ray free, but she still looked at him with her burning with anger red glowing eyes. “I don’t have anyone I know from my world here. If I get cured, what will be left of me? With no one to remind me of my past self I will become empty. They say it’s a chance for vampires to start a new life, but even if I do that, there will be something missing. Saying that it’s not that bad, and you we can still have a bright future is just part of mages propaganda to continue their curing rituals. But it’s just a nightmare I fear the most.”  
“I won’t tell anyone” said Ray as he hugged Melissa. “And you can still take my blood whenever you want.”  
“Once a five days is enough, really” she said. “Don’t push it too far again you idiot”  
Melissa wrapped her arms around Ray’s waist. Ray thought it could be because she was scared. But he knew, it was partially because she could clearly smell his precious rare blood type, so close to her. And a revealed neck, just begging to be beaten. The one he could give so willingly, yet she knew she has to hold herself back if she wants to stay safe away from army of mages chasing after her.  
“Don’t worry” said Ray. “You are safe and no one will try to cure you. I’ll make sure of it.”

Ray came back home relieved, knowing that Melissa doesn’t hate him, and their relations could still remain as they were. As long as no more people find out about her, Melissa should be safe feeding only on Ray’s blood. As Ray walked into his room, he saw Martin and Ash sitting by his table, playing chess.  
“Your opening moves are so random” said Ash. “It’s like you don’t know what you want to do.”  
“How am I supposed to have a plan when the game haven’t even started? It’s just a board with set up like always, where anything can happen.”  
“Improvising as the threats are coming won’t make you better at chess” said Ash. “You have to have your own strategy and try to execute it.”  
“I don’t care about getting better at this game anyway.”  
They didn’t notice Ray, he was like a ghost to them. At first Ray smiled, seeing Ash beating someone else at chess., making him know he’s not the only one bullied by her in this game. Then he realised there was something odd about Ash- She was wearing glasses. Ray stood frozen, wondering what was the meaning of this while she was explaining Martin one of the strategies used in chess.  
“Hi Ray” said Martin, who looked to the side, clearly not interested in listening to Ash’s advices.  
“Hello Ray.” Ash looked at Ray as she touched the temple of her glasses.  
Ray stood paralyzed. He glanced to the side to look at Martin and his broad cheeky smile.  
“Idiot” said Ray.  
“Is something wrong?” asked Ash.  
“I mean… Did your sight get worse after reading too many books that now you need to wear glasses?” asked Ray.  
“Martin told me glasses would fit me. What do you think Ray?”  
“Yes. No. It doesn’t matter. Glasses mean a lot of discomfort, don’t wear them if you don’t have to. Perfect sight is a blessing.”  
Ash tilted her head while looking at Ray, then she turned to Martin and asked “I don’t get it, so who won?”  
“We’ll decide it later” replied Martin. “Anyway. I’m out to meet with Lily, I’m leaving you two alone.”  
“What did you try to achieve?” asked Ray through his teeth while Martin was passing next to him.  
“I just wanted to see your reaction. And yes, it was worth it.”  
“Ray” said Ash. Ray almost jumped up after hearing her voice. “Do you have time for a few chess matches?”  
“Y-yes. Of course.”  
“What’s the matter? You look so stressed?”  
“It’s nothing. Forget about it. Let’s just get to playing.”  
Ray joined Ash by the table. Martin stayed in the kitchen near the exit for a bit longer to observe Ray who almost tripped over when trying to take a seat.  
“Before we start I’d like to ask something” said Ash. Her eyes were locked on the chessboard. “Did you recently encounter someone who keeps using blood related jokes and puns?”  
“What?”  
“How’s your blood?” she asked. “Do you have enough of it in your veins?”  
“What are you talking about?” asked Ray.  
Ash finally raised her eyes to look at Ray. “Okay I don’t know how to be subtle, people complain I’m always too direct but otherwise I always confuse others. I’m asking if you have any problems with vampires.”  
“Ash is just paranoid” said Martin. “And she thinks everyone is either a vampire or a succubus waiting to make us their prey.”  
“I didn’t” replied Ray.  
“Then you shouldn’t mind if I look at your neck?”  
Ray put his hand on a neck covered by sweater while Ash tried to peek at what’s beneath from the other side of the table.  
“If you didn’t encounter a vampire, there’s nothing you need to hide” said Ash.  
“If I said no, it means no” said Ray. “Don’t you trust me?”  
“Right now I trust you as much, as I trust my friend who kept saying he doesn’t have any problems while he was meeting with succubus in secret.”  
Ash got up from her chair and run up to Ray trying to unzip his sweater. Martin joined them and grabbed Ash’s arms trying to stop her.  
As they were pulling one another, Ray eventually fell of his chair. He was lucky not to hit anything with his head on his way down. Under the angle he was lying, Ash could see a bite marks on Ray’s neck.  
“So I was right” Ash said.  
“I’m giving my blood to a vampire” said Ray. “But I’m doing it willingly.”  
“That’s like saying ‘I’m letting myself be beaten by gorgon’s snakes.’ It just proves you are stupid and you want to hurt yourself.”  
“It’s different. And now I will be giving them less blood, so I won’t be sick again.”  
“But there is solution that can make everyone satisfied. We have a cure for vampirism Ray, you don't have to go through all of this. I can just free them from their curse. I can’t let you hurt yourself anymore.”  
“They don’t want to be cured” said Ray. “Why would anyone want to agree to have an amnesia? It’s curing one disease with another.”  
“Of course they are afraid of it. Just like Martin once said, changes are difficult.”  
Ray sighed while turning his head away. Silence filled the room. Martin stood beside, looking at Ray still lying on the ground. Just get up you fool, he thought. He waited to hear Ray’s comeback, but his friend stayed silent.  
“I’ll be going” said Martin. “Just don’t wipe out all vampires from the campus when I’m out.”  
After Martin closed the door behind him, Ray finally got up from the floor and slowly put the chair back on its place, prolonging the time before he has to say anything to Ash.  
“Why Ray?” she asked. “Curing vampirism benefits both the vampire and everyone around them.”  
“How can amnesia benefit anyone?” asked Ray.  
“It’s just as drastic change, as turning into normal human itself. But after few weeks they feel better and are ready to start their new lives. Back at academy we were shown how to treat vampirism and saw a man recovering after being cured. It’s really not as big of a change as it sounds. Back in our world we have an organisation that helps cured get used to their new lives, I can request someone to come here and help us with all the vampires that came through the portal.”  
“Stay away from all vampires in the campus” Ray raised his voice.  
“But Ray-”  
Ray moved his hand in front of Ash’s face, pointing at the exit doors. “Just leave” he said.


	13. Chapter 13

On Sunday morning Dorian met with Ash by the fountain where their next lesson about magic should begin. Ash clearly had a lot of knowledge she’d like to pass, but the way she was presenting it was too messy and chaotic for Dorian to get anything from it. That caused him to be hit in the head with a book on many occasions, as Ash considered it was all fault of him not paying enough attention. But for Dorian it was still a better alternative than being surrounded by groups of nymphs or elves all the time. Now that everyone kept seeing him around Ash, he could finally walk outside the dormitory in peace.  
Usually Ash didn’t have much troubles giving a lecture and it was hard to stop her from talking, but this time she had a difficulty to even start.  
“Today we will… what’s left of the basics I should mention.” Ash was moving bridge of her glasses up and down, as if her nose was itching.  
“Why are you suddenly wearing glasses?” asked Dorian.  
“Because of bet between Martin and Ray. But I liked it, so I asked Luna to let me keep them for a bit longer. Do you like it?”  
Dorian knew that after he comes back home, Martin will have a lot of explaining to do. But for now he prefered not to question anything.  
“Yes” he said. “For a moment I just thought you took my joke about glasses too far and that’s why you got yourself one.”  
“Oh, so it was actually just a joke” said Ash under her nose, thinking out loud while tapping cheek with her finger.  
“It doesn’t matter” replied Dorian, but it looked like Ash stopped listening to him.  
“Vampires” suddenly said Ash while raising her finger. “Yes, let’s talk about vampires now.”  
“Why starting with vampires?” asked Dorian.  
“Don’t question my choice of subjects” she replied. “Now then, vampires come from a bloodline of one of the ancient archmage. His chase for immortality lead him to create a completely new ritual. Blood related magic is always a dangerous territory as it’s really hard to predict the outcome of the spell, too many variables we don’t know about, yet affect the form of the spell greatly. He made his research in secret, as it was something that could easily result in him losing his position in the academy or even being banished.”  
“So he succeeded but lust for blood was a drawback of this transformation?”  
“Yes. Though immortality refers only to them aging really slow. Research on one vampire showed, that their cells still age, the process just takes much longer than for normal human. In one month vampires body would age as much as normal human body in one day.”  
“It’s still gives them plenty of time to live.”  
“Yes, for something as powerful as immortality, the result this spell had was still very impressive and could be considered a success. Though kids with vampire genes still grow normally until the age of fifteen, only then the aging process slows down. I looked at depiction of vampires in your fiction, there are some differences. For example our vampires don’t have problems with walking in the sun and are unaffected by garlic. Vampires’ downsides are their need for blood to stay alive and some acids that are harmless for normal humans can be deadly for their body or organs. They can regenerate fast, but killing a vampire is possible by destroying either their heart or brain. Those are their only weak spots. But that’s not relevant in present times, no one kills vampires anymore.”  
“So all the vampires are descendants of that archmage?”  
“Yes, only people from his bloodline have a chance to be born as a vampire. This spell couldn’t spread on its own, but since all the cells in archmage’s body were changed, it was only natural for his kids to inherit some of the vampire traits. That makes them easier to track down.”  
“And what about the archmage himself?” asked Dorian. “Is he still alive?”  
Ash shook her head. “He was killed by publicly being stabbed in the heart, so at least we already got rid of the most dangerous one.But aftermath of his foolishness still walk among us. But when we thought our chase for vampires nears the end, in recent years they discovered even some elves and dwarves are born with vampirism. This curse is a strange case, after secret notes of that archmage were discovered, it became easy to find a cure for it. It’s one of the few curses we learned how to heal. There’s a good chance, by the end of this century we will put an end to this curse once and for all.”  
“That would mean no more vampires being born ever again?”  
“Yes. Don’t you think it’s a good thing? Vampires aren’t needed, it’s simply a curse that makes them live longer and they feed on others’ blood. Most of people born with this curse don’t even wish to live that long, so we are helping them to have the lives they always wanted.  
“I guess there’s nothing wrong with it then” said Dorian.  
“Yes, but…” Ash lowered her head. “There is a drawback of having vampirism cured and we didn’t find a way to bypass it. They experience a serious case of amnesia. They know how to walk, how to eat and speak. But all the memories are gone. Those who experienced it, describe it as if they were just born, waking up for the first time and already being in an adult body. Because when they open their eyes for the first time after becoming human, that’s the first sight they see and remember. They don’t remember what they did the previous day as much as they don’t remember faces of their parents.”  
“I see why it would be a questionable solution.”  
“But then they can move on with their lives, just without constant urge to drink someone’s blood. Cured vampires usually have a bright future, they have a chance for normal life like anyone else. We have special clinic that helps them get used to their new life and get lack of the memories of their past. Family and friends reintroduce themselves to vampire’s life and after a few months they are ready to function properly and live a happy life.”  
“But how would you feel if someone were to erase all your memories?”  
“That’s always the argument of those who are against it. It’s funny how they want us to eliminate problem of vampires, but many are against us curing them. We try to make this change as easy as possible. We estimated there are about one thousand vampires in the world right now. If we cure all of them in this generation, if those one thousand people will go through this struggle, then no one else in the future will have to. Isn’t it a small price to pay for making life of whole mankind easier? The longer we wait, the more people will have to go through the recovery process.”  
“They will rather think about their own life than trying to help mankind from next century.”  
“Yes. Isn’t it selfish of them?” asked Ash.  
“I don’t know” replied Dorian. “I still would think of the individual people I live with as more important than a child that is going to be born long after I’m dead. On larger scale it’s easy to just assume curing vampires will benefit everyone. But there are always those who get affected personally- vampires, their relatives and friends. Those are the people who will always be against using the cute.”  
“Even you have to think like this?” Ash’s voice started breaking. “As a mage we have to work so hard, just to fix mistakes of our ancestors. It consumes most of our resources that could otherwise be spend on making new technology, improving our lifestyles, new discoveries. Maybe we would be more advanced than your world by now, but instead we have to repair mistakes of the past caused by selfish mages who didn’t think of the consequences of their actions.. We have to carry the burden of the past that makes people hate mages as a whole. But people always forget that we aren’t as we used to, restrictions were put on us one after another, to make sure no more worldwide changes like this will happen. But people ignore our goodwill. We are marked by the past of a man who thought fifty years isn’t enough to fully enjoy life, a woman who blamed beauty of another woman for not being able to find a husband. A man who separated himself from anyone for so long, he used magic to give him pleasures and love he couldn’t get from others. A man who thought graveroot isn’t intoxicating enough for a drug. So many archmages who used magic to solve their simple problems. At one point there was a debate if we should stop using magic completely. The fact that magic acts on it’s own stays as the main argument for academies to keep existing. There has to be someone who can tame the element that alters world in the most unpredictable ways. At the very least torans need to exist to prevent natural disasters.”  
“At least mages learned on their mistakes” said Dorian. “If no more disasters like this happened for the next years, maybe you will be finally redeemed of your past.”  
“I don’t believe it can ever change. Marks from the past will remain and are hard to forget. Succubus magic will never be fully erased. But we know how to cure vampires, and soon we might be able to cure gorgons too. And if we can, why wouldn’t we?”  
“If it’s meant only to fix the image of mages, then you should rather work on creating something new instead of fixing the past that will never be completely fixed. You said it yourself that opinion about mages will never change. Maybe it’s because you work on mistakes of the past instead of making new technologies and inventions.”  
Dorian got pushed back as if he was hit by a giant fist. Confused by the attack of the invisible force, he was knocked back and landed on the ground. Dorian didn’t get a chance to stop Ash, who was already running away, disappearing in the distance as she was running to the second boys’ dormitory.

Martin was cooking a dinner for him and his roommates. Ray joined him, trying to help him as much as he could.  
“She’s unbelievable” said Ray. “She wanted a new start here, yet she sticks to her stupid mage traditions straight from medieval times. She said they aren’t barbarians anymore. Yes, they aren’t, they are just executioners.”  
“Just tell her that” said Martin.   
“I can’t. It’s not that easy.” Ray sighted. “Sometimes I wish I was like you, just saying everyone what you have on mind. I thought that makes you just rude, but sometimes it’s actually useful.”  
“If someone pisses you off, just tell them that” said Martin swinging his spoon. “It works for me. Otherwise Luna would stay mad at me and Lily kept on poisoning me with her succubus powers.”  
“Maybe you can convince Ash to stop her from curing Melissa.”  
“It’s your job to do it.” Martin took a bite from the pan. “Okay, it’s ready.” Martin turned off the stove and prepared to take all of their items from the kitchen. Ray took the remaining spices and ingredients that Martin didn’t manage to carry in one go.  
“Aren’t roommates supposed to help each other?”  
“I’m helping” said Martin. “I’m reminding you what you should do. Unless that elf prick from student council was right. And you are too weak and don’t fit for a role of a leader.”  
As they left the kitchen, they noticed a rat that was hiding next to the entrance to the kitchen. It run down the hallway before quickly disappearing on the staircase.  
“We should inform the rest of the dormitory about rat invasion” asked Martin.  
“Or maybe Ash was right” said Ray. “Maybe her vampirism really should be cured? But Melissa doesn’t have anyone here. who would remind her of her past? She should return to World Beta and be cured there. Staying here with amnesia will just make her already tough life more difficult.”  
“Then tell Melissa to move out of here” said Martin.  
“Okay, I don’t know what to do anymore.”  
“If you don’t know, how am I supposed to know?”  
They returned to their room, where Martin served the dinner on three plates. When they sat by the table, Martin jumped right into eating as if he didn’t eat for weeks. Ray looked at the empty chair by the table.  
“Are you sure Dorian will be back soon?” asked Ray.  
“He went with Ash about two hours ago, he should have enough soon. Even if not, I’m not going to wait any longer with making dinner because of him. He said she gives him lectures about magic. But doesn’t it sound fishy? First they are like: there’s very little we can reveal about our super secret special magical arcane knowledge. And now she suddenly turns into walking wikipedia just for Dorian.”  
Martin managed to finish talking before Dorian walked into the room, who didn’t get to hear anything he just said. “Oh, I made it in time for a dinner” he said with tired unenthusiastic voice.   
“Are you tired of learning about magic without actually using magic?” asked Martin.  
“Ash got mad at me and suddenly run away” explained Dorian. “We were just talking about vampires and I disagreed with her. How could I know it’s a touchy subject to her?”  
“You have to learn how to talk with girls Dorian” said Martin. “Muscles aren’t always the only solution.”  
“Hey” Ray said out loud. “But maybe this time it is?”  
“Are you going to ask Dorian to beat Ash and change her mind?” asked Martin, who still tried to figure out, what kind of plan Ray was actually thinking about.  
“What are you talking about?” asked Dorian.  
“Ray lends his neck to our mosquito classmate and Ash wants to squish it until it loses all of its memories” said Martin.  
Dorian took a seat for a dinner. He quickly forgot about his hunger, too curious about what did he actually miss while he was busy with his training and listening to Ash’s lectures.  
“At least Ash doesn’t know who it is” sad Martin.  
Ray snapped his fingers. “As long as we won’t tell her, and Luna stays quiet about it too, we don’t have to do anything.”  
“And take a risk that one day she accidentally finds out? It’s funny, she wanted this world to be a new start to her. But now when she gets a chance to prove it, she’s going to pick being a traditionalist mage over being our friend. But she probably doesn’t realise that, so you should talk with Ash and solve it.”  
“I can’t believe I fell so low to take advices from you” sighed Ray.  
“Maybe I should talk with her about that” said Dorian. “Though today it didn’t went well.”  
Ray continued calmly eating, as if he turned off to the whole outside world. “I will do it tomorrow” he said under his nose.  
“Before or after Melissa gets cured?”  
Ray’s chair fell on the ground as he stood up and stomped to the exit. “Okay, I’m going then.”  
“Hey!” shouted Martin. But the door behind Ray already shut. “I didn’t tell you to miss the dinner because of it.”  
“And I thought I’m bad with dealing with problems” said Dorian.  
“But it turned out Ray is the biggest fool of us all.”

Ash knocked to the door as hard as she could. Please be home, please be home, please be home, she kept repeating in her head. Then the door finally opened. She immediately jumped at Orion and embraced him tightly.   
Orion, no matter how much he was against her choices made after they arrived here, no matter how difficult it was for them to agree recently, it was always him she could rely on the most. She couldn’t hide in her own room as there was a chance of Lily coming in any moment, attacking her in one way or another with her cheery selfish loud talking that would break the toughest muting spell. It was Orion’s room where she could always come. His roommates were usually missing, one of them was a dwarf, who was practically living somewhere else, working with his friend on some kind of big project. Second one was an orc, who found himself a quiet place where he decontructs every technological device from this world he got into his hands, hoping to one day make his own devices, that will make orcish devices even more impressive than dwarven ones without requirement of using magic.  
“What happened this time?” he said while patting Ash’s head.  
“My friends are so naive” said Ash. She started to calm down and walked into Orion’s room. She took a seat on his bed, her legs felt weak and she needed to rest. “It all started because one of them became victim of a vampire.”  
“Vampires” said Orion. He seemed to be absorbed in his own thoughts, his wide opened eyes were jumping from one corner of the room to another, as if he tried to spot a fly. After saying one word he went silent and stood with his mouth opened as if someone froze him. “Yes, vampires. It’s no surprise they came here. But that’s a good opportunity to cure them.”  
“Yes. Because we have to cure them, right? That’s the right thing to do.”  
“Of course. Otherwise they might start a family in this world and in a few generations this world will start filling with vampires too.”  
Orion walked around the room, he was searching for something. He lifted random objects from his desk, one after another just to place them back right away.  
“Why people in this world have to be against it?” asked Ash.  
“They don’t understand” he replied while looking at his desk. “But their opinion doesn’t matter. It’s a problem from our world and it’s up to us how we deal with it. They shouldn’t get involved into our issues. People won’t even realise we made them a huge favour.”  
Ash stood up from the bed, she made it too fast and she felt dizzy for a moment. But staying in this room for just this moment made her already calm down and she began feeling confident again.  
“Then I should look for this vampire. I will let you know when I locate them so we can cure him together.”  
“Stay” said Orion in ordering tone. “In your current state you won’t accomplish much. You can take a nap in my bed if you want. After you wake up, you will work more efficiently.”  
Ash stood in the middle of the room silent, she looked at the door and the bed, not sure what to do next.  
“Did your sight get worse?” asked Orion. “I told you to use more light when reading at nights.”  
Ash completely forgot about her glasses, she immediately took it off. “No, my eyes are still in perfect condition. I just borrowed them from a gorgon for fun..”  
“With your eyes, now you only lack snake hair to look like a gorgon.”  
Orion never knew how to give people compliments. It took knowing him for quite some time before learning to notice when he gives one to someone. But Ash liked this part of him, it was always making her smile. In that way, his compliments actually worked on her.  
Ash sighted. “At times like this I really feel helpless. How can I become an archmage when I keep on relying on you?”  
“You still can accomplish a lot on your own. And even archamages need friends by their side. Before you gain this title, you will become even stronger and you will be able to take on this position even without my help. But I will always be there, to support you and to protect from falling from the top.”  
Ash wanted to leave as fast as possible, but a warm and safe room became too tempting. She looked at Orion’s bed and she felt her eyes are closing on her own as she started feeling more tired.   
“I guess I’ll take a little nap” Ash said before resting on Orion’s bed.  
Orion didn’t say anything, he was still busy looking through his shelves. Ash wasn’t sure if he even heard what she said. She just watched him while her eyes were slowly closing. She fell asleep almost right after her head touched the pillow.


End file.
